What's your job about?

Prysmian is the biggest cable manufacturer in Australia. We produce energy and telecom cables to supply local and regional demand. I work for Prysmian’s telecom plant in Dee Why with responsibility to ensure the quality of our product.

I am currently working as a Quality Engineer for a Telecom plant in Australia. I am part of the team managing the quality of copper and optical cable products for NBN project, Telstra, and other customers. Working in Prysmian is exciting yet challenging. The opportunity to work in a highly competitive market is very stimulating. I spend most of my time dealing with customer complaints, process non-conformities, and supplier complaints on a daily basis. In order to improve manufacturing efficiency and reduce the cost of poor quality, I collaborate with other departments and work together to find solutions. Furthermore, I also do the process audits, equipment calibration, and support laboratory for special cable testing.

Our main job is to make sure Australians get fast internet by providing them with good quality telecom cable.

What's your background?

I was born in a small town in East Java Indonesia and lived there until I moved to a bigger city to attend university in Bandung. I got my Engineering Physics degree from Institut Teknologi Bandung in 2014 and then moved to Cilegon to work for an American Petrochemical company as an Electrical and Instrumentation Engineer. I was in charge of leading a team consisting of supervisors and electricians to handle plant maintenance and projects. In March 2015 I joined the Prysmian Graduate Program and was assigned to different departments in different countries within ASEAN as part of the job rotation. Prior to the completion of job rotation, the company assigned me to work in the Quality Department in Prysmian Australia and New Zealand.

Could someone with a different background do your job?

Yes. But not everyone will be capable of being a good quality engineer. Working in a quality department needs some special attributes. In addition to a strong technical background, the engineer must have an objective mindset as well as a cooperative attitude. A quality engineer must be able to be a team leader as well as a team player but maintain independent thoughts.

What's the coolest thing about your job?

The best thing about being a Quality Engineer is the opportunity to learn different things and work with different departments to solve problems. Most problems I receive every day are unique. They need to be resolved in different ways. Some problems may need simple solutions, others may require deep analysis and improvement projects to tackle the issue.

What are the limitations of your job?

My job is not physically demanding but it requires a lot of energy to analyse problems and work with other people to solve the issues. The biggest obstacle for a quality engineer is our colleagues. To solve issues, a quality engineer mostly needs to work with other departments. So, the capability to persuade others to work together and be cooperative is very essential to define the result.

3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...

Be creative, active, and humble. In the workplace, creativity to solve problems is critical. If the conventional method doesn’t work well, you need to think out of the box to find a way. Some people are too busy with their own problems and they are reluctant to share their knowledge. In order to learn, you need to be active and keep your self-enthusiasm. Don’t forget to stay humble at the same time.