September 02, 2025 • 2 min read
The power of peer connections: Tapping into a global career network
“Even if it’s things that are a bit out of reach, just give it a go – because you never know.”
Big ideas inspire big ambitions. Even before earning her master’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Melbourne in 2024, Helene Zhang was drawn to energy and resources – captivated by the scale and impact of the projects.
“The projects Worley works on are so impactful in terms of making large-scale change in the world,” she says. “The energy transition is very relevant.”
After finishing her 12-week internship with us in early 2024, Helene began working casually while she completed her university studies. She started a full-time role as a Graduate Process Engineer in our Melbourne office in February 2025.
Big ambitions, solid support
Helene is inspired by colleagues who’ve grown from graduate roles into senior leadership – and she’s determined to follow in their footsteps. Despite being early in her career, Helene has no issues making her voice heard on projects and is motivated by our culture of communication and support.
“The people I work with are willing to listen to me, even though I feel like I’m just a fresh graduate – still sort of a kid at heart,” she says. “I’m just happy that they take on what I say, and I can see that impacting processes.”
Balancing the load with the capability of her team
Helene relies on her network of peers and leaders for feedback and support. A supervisor based in Canada became an early mentor, and she attributes his guidance to helping her manage her workload while studying.
“Once he trusted me to do the work, I could balance it really nicely with university,” she says. “I’ve been lucky that I’ve been able to interact with so many different people – it’s definitely been good to have those connections.”
Helene has also explored data-centric engineering – integrating traditional engineering principles with AI to test their impact on project delivery.
In addition, her role involves working with leaders of different teams to understand workflows and encourage adoption of software that is unique to each stage of a project. “All the stages or components of a project have specific software we use,” she says.
Learning the ropes
Seeing how projects rely on financial decisions that hinge on the outcomes of feasibility studies has been an eye-opener for Helene. “I naively thought that a project gets designed, goes through all the gates and then gets commissioned. But it’s way more complicated.”
She especially likes how colleagues have gained experience across varied projects and found that connections forged in one part of the business can be relied on in other areas.
Her advice to other graduates? Don’t be afraid to voice an opinion, Don’t be afraid to speak up – forward-thinking companies value critical thinkers. “Even if it’s things that are a bit out of reach, just give it a go – because you never know.”
