Congratulations to Ryan Jones on being selected to join the 2022 Roads Australia Fellowship Program, a professional development opportunity that fosters leadership skills in the industry.
Currently the Project Manager on a major road upgrade in regional Queensland, Ryan is looking forward to the opportunities that the Roads Australia Fellowship will bring.
“The Fellowship is all about learning from others in the industry and I’m looking forward to the opportunity to interact with people I wouldn’t otherwise have had the chance to meet.
“You can always do better and you can always learn from someone who has done it before. It is easy to think, ‘I know the best way to do it,’ but then you see someone do it in a different way and you think, ‘Hey, that works as well’, and maybe I can take a bit of what they’re doing and improve what I’ve been doing.
“I’m sure I will learn things from the Fellowship and I’ll bring those lessons back to my projects and share with the wider team.
“I’ve been with CPB Contractors for ten years and it’s been a good career. It’s a big company so I’ve had the chance to work in a diverse bunch of roles and am currently the Project Manager on this project. Previously, I was a Senior Project Engineer in Brisbane, and when the opportunity came to move to regional Queensland and take this step up, I took it.
“As a Project Manager I’ve learnt a fair bit about managing a team of diverse professionals. I’m still involved in the technical stuff that a senior engineer does, but I also have the ultimate responsibility for steering the ship and working with all the different disciplines involved – engineering, quality, HR, safety and the environment.
“From the outside, every road project might look the same, but in fact every project is unique. Technically the challenges and solutions can significantly vary and being able to apply the right solution for the scenario is the real challenge. Every project means dealing with different people and personalities, who all look at problems differently and have different solutions and ways of doing things.
“The best thing about my work is being part of a team. A project can be tricky, challenging or stressful, but once it’s over you don’t remember those things. What you takeaway is the memory of the team you worked with. You learn from all of those people and at the end of a project you’re proud of delivering a quality job and the legacy you leave behind for the community.”
