Did you always aspire to be in the job position you currently hold?

No, coming to the end of school I didn’t really have too many career aspirations, I had a passion for cars and was lucky to do some work experience with a family friend in year 12 which resulted in an offer to start an apprenticeship in the January after finishing school.

What have you done since leaving CTHS?

I began with a light vehicle mechanic apprenticeship with Suttons Holden Waitara, following that I continued with manufacturer based training and certifications to continue to advance my knowledge in the trade.

I continued to seek further challenges and to do that lead me to taking a role within the GM Holden head office in Melbourne supporting dealer technicians with diagnosing complex problems in their customers vehicles. After over 6 years in the GMH head office and the downsizing and eventual closure of the brand, I managed to land a great opportunity with Toyota Motor Corporation Australia within their National Technical Service Operations team as a Product Consultant looking after the Lexus brand portfolio and also supporting the Toyota passenger vehicle portfolio.

Describe your average work day....

No two days are the same in the auto industry. My core role involves providing service support for my vehicle portfolio, this entails reviewing dealer technical reports and analysing emerging issues to report through to quality and design engineers back in Japan, following on from this is to then develop field fixes for dealerships to be able to repair known issues. Also product recalls play a major part in day to day work, the majority of Toyota and Lexus recalls over the last 12 months have initiated from my home office thanks to COVID!

A big part of Toyota is Genchi Genbutsu (go and see), so there is a bit of travel around Australia looking at product issues in person and also a bit of travel to Japan for training, when restrictions permit.

Please share some words of wisdom for today's students...

Consumer wants and needs, as well as technologies are consistently changing, so if you fail to push and advance yourself in your chosen field and keep all your eggs in one basket, you will be left behind like Kodak!