Feature | Kevin Kearney
PACCAR Engineering New Talent Unlikely as it seems, working for Woolies led Kevin Kearney to find his ideal job in engineering Kevin worked at Woolworths supermarket across the road from PACCAR on Canterbury Road in Bayswater, Victoria while he studied for his engineering degree and, as he said, he would often look across at the development and expansion of the company. “I was at uni, and probably like a lot of students I had a part time job. At the time I was working at Woolies, the supermarket across from PACCAR,” Kevin explained. “I was doing an engineering degree and with companies leaving Australia, I was a little bit worried about what manufacturing and the automotive industry would look like in the future. “Because I worked across the road, I could see PACCAR continued to expand and was clearly thriving in the industry. I figured that meant a sustainable workplace. And I knew it would be a good place to work.” Kevin had ample time to study PACCAR’s progress as he chose to complete a three-year science degree before a two-year Master’s in Engineering at Melbourne University. The Master’s degree was a practical based degree according to Kevin, and not your typical theoretical degree. One day as Kevin says, he worked up the courage to walk across the road and knock on the door, and was directed to HR. “That’s where I found out about the PACCAR graduate program. I was told the program was four years, where graduates do four 12-month rotations in different parts of the business. It sounded like a long time, but I was also excited by this, because it would give me the chance to learn different things, especially just coming out of uni. “And I think being able to rotate through different positions and really get a broad overview of how the business works and how everything links together, was exciting. “After that, I buckled down and I made sure I worked hard in my remaining two years and then applied to PACCAR.” Near the end of his final year, Kevin was offered a position in the PACCAR graduate program, which he grabbed with both hands as it meant he was able to use his degree in the area of work he hoped to be working in. 26 | September 2021
“It’s definitely an exciting area, which I was hoping to get into. I’d seen a lot of mechanical based applications in Australia receding. But heavy-duty truck manufacturing is thriving, so I was excited to get to be a part of it, to be a part of the automotive aspects of engineering,” he said. Coming straight out of university into an engineering environment can be confronting if you don’t have the right leadership and guidance, which is why the PACCAR program is so important. While university teaches you how to tackle engineering challenges and to use analytical thinking, the real-world environment can test a young engineer. “I think coming into the graduate program, where the company puts you in proper roles, not just roles to keep grads busy is a great introduction. “For me, at least, coming into my first position, I got to experience a lot of different options, understanding how build materials work for the product, and things like all the different combinations and options on a truck and how they are configured together.
“It’s really exciting to see the actual product, to see manufacturing of a truck happening right outside the window. It’s not something everyone gets to see, you know, the fruits of your work, that product that you’re working on, seeing it actually roll out the door.” Kevin’s first role was as a product release writer, which meant when a truck order came though he was to validate the different options in the correct order because every truck is custom built. A product release writer validates the options with the engineering bill of materials and confirms the order has what it requires and what it needs to be built. “You are tasked with making sure the manufacturing line gets the products on time, gets all the correct materials and the truck is buildable. You also work with the engineers if there’s any options that conflict with each other, for example, and smooth those out,” Kevin said. Throughout the four-year graduate journey Kevin said he had managers and engineers always ready to help and mentor where he needed, and he continues that himself now he has a graduate working under his guidance.
