Like a lot of people, my University experience was a bit of a trial-and-error. I enrolled in a lot of other courses before finding a good fit in Mechanical Engineering. From there, I secured a fly-in-fly-out job with a major company in Western Australia. I worked in the Pilbara for seven years, getting experience with fixed plant equipment—something I really loved!

I’ve always enjoyed working in fast paced and challenging environments, so an engineering role was a great fit. Nowadays I’m helping build an engineering consultancy here in Perth and working with some great people both in Australia and over in the USA.

I’ve been a coach for Curious Minds for four years and I feel privileged to have contributed to the program’s success! I love it because it connects young women from regional and rural areas with people they wouldn’t have ordinarily met with otherwise.

The students who come through the Curious Minds program are talented and extremely driven, some of whom become deeply interested in a field they didn’t even know existed before the program. On a professional level, I’ve also gotten to know a lot of the other coaches and it’s been fantastic to increase my professional networks as well.

Gabriella Martini is an engineering consultant and Curious Minds coach from Perth.