A change of course.

It’s interesting to think about how quickly and how much life can change in a relatively short span of time. Two years ago, I was in the last year of my undergrad and thought I had the next few years of my professional life well and truly laid out for me. Finish undergrad, then finish honours, then start a Ph.D. and take it as far as I could. I was certain of this plan and had been tailoring my university experience towards what I thought I had wanted, a career in university academia. I had really loved my undergrad up to this point and was thriving in the learning space, trying to squeeze as much as I could from my degree to help me move into the academic space.

Although by the end of my undergrad, I was slightly burnt out on four years of study and noodles for dinner, I was more excited by the prospects of sinking my teeth into some real bonafide research. Especially considering that just before the end of my undergrad, I was given the opportunity to go on a field trip to Malaysia and was further offered the chance to go back and do some research for honours. How could I say no to a paid trip to do some scuba-diving in Malaysia and then write a thesis about it? Well, as I learned quite quickly things seldom go to plan in academia and the covid pandemic entirely derailed the prospects of travelling outside of Western Australia for research. Oh well, I was too excited for further study that I couldn’t let something like that get me too down.

Luckily for me, my supervisor was involved in a ton of projects and was able to get me on board relatively quickly with a local project investigating the sediment dynamics of parrotfish on island-building. This was a fantastic plan B and, I was excited to give it a go as I had done several assignments on this exact topic. After months of preliminary research, work, and deciphering the logistics of a university trip, we were finally out on the islands, ready to do some research when the worst-case scenario happened. The species we were hoping to investigate were nowhere to be found and I came back with a single point of data. Fantastic. So once again I was sent back to the drawing board with the thesis due date and course assignments looming ever closer.

My supervisor again pulled through and quickly got me involved in another project that had just finished the initial data collection stage and I was excited to back to work. However, this time was different. I had already ‘completed’ half of my honours and it seemed like I was only just starting at square one again with only half the remaining time available to me. It was a daunting prospect and one that ultimately led me to reconsider my future options. At first, I felt like I was being foolish for considering anything else for my future as I had been striving for academic excellence this entire time specifically to pursue academia. Yet, the thoughts that this wasn’t what I had signed up for kept looming. I enjoyed working with a supervisor, I enjoyed learning about new things, and I enjoyed the work that I was doing so what was different between my undergrad and my honours degree that made me feel this way?

Upon finishing my honours I was left more confused than I had been in the previous five years. I thought I’d wanted to endlessly pursue a career in academia and all of a sudden I really didn’t. I didn’t really understand why until I actually started working with Australasian Environmental Solutions (AES). It turns out I missed the comradery, the vast learning scope, the ability to bounce ideas off others, being able to ask questions, seeing the value in my work, the excitement of what comes next, and the banter that came from my undergrad.

I thought transitioning into the workforce from years of study would be more challenging than fun, and I can thankfully report that I was entirely wrong. As a graduate at AES, I have others to work through problems with and a team of people to ask questions of at any time that are willing to put time aside to help me through those questions. It’s exactly the work environment I was hoping to get from academia and one I didn’t know I could get from working in industry. Also, during university studies, we are so focused on the research that we never get to see the implications or applications of that research. However, at AES I am finally getting to see how environmental research impacts legislation and what procedures need to be in place to protect the environment and still allow economic growth.

I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a bit scary going from knowing what I wanted and how to achieve it in academia to taking my first steps into a massive industry with a seemingly endless scope of learning opportunities and work to do. Yet, I’ve already started to learn more practical skills to support my existing research-based knowledge. So when considering that and the team environment and comradery at AES, even though we’re virtual, I find that I have confidence I will be able achieve my new goals within this industry even though it seems like the scope and learning curve is more of a vertical learning wall.

I don’t regret my university experience in any way, and I believe that pursuing academia as far as I did was a necessary path for me to take and has given me the motivation to thrive in the industry. Though I currently can’t say for certain what the next five years will hold, I know it’s going to be great.

Authors: Dylan Benson - Graduate Environmental Advisor