JAMES TILBURY: Hi, I’m James Tilbury. I’m a QUT Civil Engineering graduate and now I’m working for CARE International in Cambodia. This is as real as it gets.

I studied Civil Engineering and I did an Economics minor with that.

There’s probably a few main ways that QUT Engineering is more in touch with industry. I think the first one is the lecturers – it wasn’t just lecturers with real world experience, it was lecturers currently in the real world telling us what’s going on at that minute.

The Civil Engineering degree is well known to be very practical, hands on, and in touch with industry. So employers look towards QUT Civil Engineering graduates as students who can jump straight in.

The Gardens Point campus was a fantastic place to study. Being right next to the Botanical Gardens, it’s a great place to hang out. It’s right in the city, so I can just go to work in my lunch break or after a lecture.

I actually got my first proper engineering job in second year. QUT run a lot of industry networking events and it was at one of these events that I met someone who then got me a job in second year.

One of the great things about getting so much experience early in my degree was I was able to figure out what I wanted to do. I’d had enough experience in design firms and construction firms that I decided that wasn’t quite for me, and I wanted to do something a bit more meaningful with my engineering degree.

QUT supported me to set up the QUT chapter of Engineers Without Borders, which is a humanitarian organisation. That was really fantastic because we were able to really get our hands involved with real development work. We’re sending students to Papua New Guinea to deliver medical equipment, doing research work in India, working with indigenous communities, and that’s really where I found out what I wanted to do with my career. I enjoyed that work so much that after university I went and applied to CARE Cambodia, and that’s where I am now.

I’m based in Phnom Penh and also spending some time in the provinces, and that’s fantastic because I’m able to see what CARE is actually doing on the ground and seeing the impact that they’re having. CARE run a range of projects, focusing on women at risk working in garment factories, all the way through to agriculture and improving the livelihoods of rural Cambodians.

It’s a huge task from clearing land mines to raising fish, and rice farming – with irrigation, these guys can double their yield.

There’s also a large sustainability focus in my degree which is really appropriate now because it’s becoming bigger and bigger in industry. At the end of my third year I was able to go the UN climate change negotiations in Copenhagen and that was a fantastic experience to see how these things work on a global stage.

Next, it’s on to Oxford. I want to help developing countries deal with the big issues like climate change.

Last year I applied for the Rhodes Scholarship and I told my lecturers about my application – they were fantastic at helping me prepare for that. They sorted out a whole heap of written references for me and they assembled a mock panel. I think that was a major factor in me actually winning the scholarship in the end.

I’m still in touch with a lot of the lecturers and tutors at QUT. One of the tutors at the moment – I’m talking to about project management. He’s been sending me some resources, which have helped in my role here with CARE Cambodia. So even after I’ve graduated they’re still really committed to my career and helping me out.

QUT gave me the confidence to take on the world.

QUT, Cambodia (a bit different to Brisbane), and now Oxford (the best pies).

QUT is a university for the real world.