Declan Skuza

What team do you work in and what are they responsible for?

As part of the graduate program at the Geelong refinery, you are able to experience many different teams in a short period of time. In the 6 months that I have been working at Viva Energy, I have worked in:

• Long term projects team including onboarding to the refinery, familiarising myself with site practices and standards, as well as commencement of small projects
• Economics and scheduling team where I was the scheduler of diesel and jet fuel optimising daily targets to meet production goals and satisfy customer demand.
• Turnaround team working during the major event where several process units are shut down for maintenance and inspections. I completed confined space entry training and was able to enter vessels and distillation columns to inspect internal conditions.
• Short term team in Process Area South in an operations facing role assisting with the daily optimisation and troubleshooting of process units as well as the temporary cover of the Utilities and the Alkylation unit process engineer roles.

Working across these various teams has enabled me to develop a wider understanding of the many components that go into operating a refinery. Throughout the rest of the graduate program, I am looking forward to spending a rotation in the Future Fuels Projects team before going back to the short-term team and taking on the role as a unit process engineer for an extended duration.

What tips can you share with prospective graduates going through the application or recruitment process with us?

The first tip I would give to prospective graduates going through the application process is to research Viva Energy and what the role you are applying for looks like .Try to understand how this role could fit into the business as a whole and the importance of this role to keep everything running smoothly. In particular, think about why you want to work in this role. Additionally, I think it is a good idea to look up “The Viva Way” containing our purpose as a business, as well as the values and behaviours we as employees strive to implement in our day-to-day work. Finally, in the interview stage itself, use the STAR method- a structured manner of response outlining the situation, task, action and result of the situation you are describing. Using the STAR method in addition to utilising the knowledge of Viva Energy, its values and your potential role, will hold you in good stead for the recruitment process.

What do you love about your work?

I love my work for several reasons. It offers abundant development opportunities, both through internal and external training programs. The learning curve at a refinery, while immensely steep, sets you up for a great career as a chemical engineer as you interact with the fundamental principles from university every day. I appreciate the complexity of the processes and equipment involved which challenge me to problem-solve and think critically on a daily basis. Seeing in real life the equipment I learnt about at university such as pumps and compressors also really help to develop my understanding of how they work and what can go wrong with them. I am always amazed by the sheer scale of our operations, such as processing up to 14,000 tonnes of crude oil per day in 60m distillation columns.