At Tallai, our people and their experience are our point of difference. As our team grows, we celebrate the insights and experience of our people. With one year approaching, since joining the team, we thought it a great opportunity to interview one of our key team members, Senior Project Engineer Jimmy Au.
Jimmy, it’s great to have you as part of the Tallai family, How long has it been now?
I joined Tallai at the back end of November last year, so approaching 12 months.
You have an impressive run sheet of project experience under your belt, can you tell us a bit about this experience in the industry to date?
I’ve been working within the construction sector for around 8 years now.
The majority of my career has involved major infrastructure projects, such as roadworks, drainage, structural and earthworks projects.
Prior to joining Tallai, I was working with John Holland Group, and before that, I’ve held positions with Seymour White and Ferrovial.
Interestingly, I actually commenced my career as a software engineer. After going down that route for a few years, I’d always been attracted to building significant things, and thought a change into the world of civil would be an exciting challenge. By progressing through construction, I’ve really enjoyed seeing things being built, and being a part of major infrastructure projects that push our communities forward.
It’s interesting to see your transition from Tier 1 to a specialised contractor. What were the determining factors behind making a change within the industry such as this?
Working with Tier 1s, you are bound by excessive processes and procedures. Not to say that Tallai don’t have a rigorous procedural approach to everything they do, I felt a lot of things were held back because of these particular systems. I’ve really enjoyed the ability to solve problems here, and have the flexibility that a smaller, specialised organisation affords to do so.
Culturally, I joined Tallai to help grow the business, and it’s been rewarding to be so involved with the team at multiple levels, and not be pigeonholed into one area of a business. There is a great work/life balance here, and I love the family-orientation that exists.
Having recently been married, everything has come together since joining the team, and the flexibility to manage not only interesting projects but all the life commitments that are happening in the background has been excellent for me.
You’ve recently gotten married – how is life outside of work going?
It’s been great, time is flying! If I’m not spending time with my family, I’m focused on health and fitness, and enjoy training for various sports. My passion for motor mechanics takes up a fait bit of time as you’d imagine, so there’s never a dull moment!
Thanks Jimmy!
