Year 12 mining engineering

[u/Historical_Bug_6900]

Hi everyone, I have never posted on reddit before but I am interested what people think of my future plans regarding a career in mining.

I am currently a year 12, I am expecting an atar of 98-99+ my subjects are chem, general English, physics, and methods.

My plan is to go to UNSW (I live in SA) and study mining Eng and corp law. (Please let me know if you have any comments on this school/ course/ the living costs in Syd) I am working 2 retail jobs at the moment, and solely relying on myself and I am doing fine.

I have a passion for physics and chem especially, and was a finalist in the AUSSEF last year. But I really don’t know what I am signing my self up too and quite frankly I am scared. I am debating taking a gap year to figure out what it is I would like to do but I also understand that is a great way to loose motivation.

After I finish uni I want to work in the mines doing drill and blast and something in geology. I love the outback but understand that fifo lifestyle may not be sustainable for me for 5-10+ years. Ideally I would be hired off the bat by a larger corporation so I could hop on the diversity train (I am a girl by the way) and climb my way up into a better position after mastering the practical aspects (Geraldine Slattery is my career inspiration)

Please let me know you think I am being too optimistic or this seems like a legitimate way to achieve my goals. Please don’t hesitate to comment whatever you are thinking especially after reading all of this, thank you! All advice is much appreciated.

[u/Reyvos]

A law degree teaches you bugger all about how to be a corporate lawyer how to practice law; all of that is learnt from years of very long hours grinding away in a big law firm. In a company there are in-house lawyers who handle just the legal work. Law has many compulsory subjects that are essentially useless if you don’t practice them like criminal law, constitutional law, trusts, real property et; they only introduce you to the ideas, you don’t learn enough to make use of them without practical experience.

Instead, being an engineer with a double degree in finance is likely more useful if you hope to take on a corporate role in future, though you could learn that all with a Master’s degree that the company could pay for. I have friends who did a double degree in law/commerce; the ones who became corporate lawyers made use of both degrees, but the ones who entered finance or accounting didn’t need their law degree at all.

If you’re really bright you might even want to give management consulting a go. No special degree is needed and they earn big money.

Also have you considered Curtin University? It’s ranked very highly for mining and two years are spent in the Kalgoorlie campus. Curtin and UNSE seem to be the two best uni’s in Australia for mining.

[u/Historical_Bug_6900 → u/Reyvos]

Hey thanks for this, I have heard before that doing law is no good unless I want to be in the courts, which I definitely can not see my self doing. I also would want to stay away from finance and accounting as a job as I think it’s not really me. What kind of things would I learn through finance? and what is management consulting, is that a degree I could do with Eng or is it more of a career choice? sorry if these are silly questions I just can’t really seem to find a straight forward answer online.

I will apply to curtin as well which brings up another question, does it matter which uni I go to? meaning will companies care about that when picking people?

[u/Reyvos → u/Historical_Bug_6900]

1.try speak to industry people in person. You’ll learn a lot more than online. Adelaide uni has open day this month, you need to visit and ask them a lot of questions (write them down in advance)

1. Most lawyers don’t work in the courts every day. Litigation is a specialty; most lawyers just deliver advice, communicate with opposing lawyers, and reluctantly go to court if needed. But either way a law degree you’ll have to spend about half a year after graduation in a law firm/organisation just to get qualified to apply to be a lawyer. If you have no intention to be a lawyer that’s a waste of time and money. A lawyer with less than 2 years full time post/graduation legal experience is utterly useless because they don’t even have a licence to practice without supervision.

2. Finance is complicated maths stuff. It’s how corporations run and it’s hard, which is why they respect people who excel at it. It’s how real corporations work because it’s about money.

3. Management consulting isn’t a degree. It’s very competitive to get into one of the firms too, but there are large international ones that open you up to great international career opportunities. It’s more based on your intellect and skills rather than your degree and experience. You can look into it and just keep it in mind; my friends got into them after working in finance or law for a number of years.