Meet Ron - our newest employee

A few months back we were looking for a new team member to help with the growing work load. Let us introduce you Ronald Kleijn, our newest recruit. Ron is a Civil Engineer with a background in detailed civil design of sewer, water and stormwater drainage infrastructure. We caught up with Ron to find out more about him and his career.

Ron, tell us about your career so far?

I went back to university later in life and my career as a civil engineer started at a medium sized consultancy in Ipswich. There I started with preparing stormwater management plans and DA concept designs, but progressed quickly to detailed design and construction of civil works such as stormwater, sewer, roads and water infrastructure. This involved many small scale developments such as 1 into 2 lot subdivision and townhouses but also included schools, childcare centres and large commercial buildings.

So civil engineering is your second career. What led you to this path?

As a family, we were at a stage in 2010 where we felt we should work smarter, not harder or more hours. I was working full time as a sales person in the local steel industry on a pretty average wage and my wife was doing night and weekend shifts (she is a registered nurse) so we could keep up with the bills and the never ending groceries for our three (giant) boys. In the end it was much smarter for Carly to work full time and me to look after the kids instead. So I became a ‘stay-at-home’ dad, which was great to start with and I was loving spending time with the kids, but it did get a little boring after a while. Sudokus and reading books wasn’t quite satisfying my active brain enough and. While living next to the University in Sippy Downs, the obvious choice was going back to study to ‘advance my skills’ like they always talk about in motivational books. Engineering was something that had always interested me, in particular anything to do with water (not a surprise coming from The Netherlands).

What’s been the highlight of your career so far?

The highlight of my career has definitely been getting a job with Topo. Having moved back to the Sunshine Coast in late June it feels like everything is falling into place both career wise but as a family as well. Ipswich has been great, but we missed the Sunshine Coast lifestyle pretty much every single day we were away from it. I am loving the work attitude and commitment Topo has, not only business wise towards their clients but also from an environmental perspective as well.

What’s been your favourite project you’ve worked on?

Hard to pick a favourite project at Topo since I have only done a few thus far, but my favourite and at the same time the least favourite project as an engineer was a large storage facility on the Gold Coast. This was my favourite because it involved many design challenges, being a very flat site that required stormwater quality treatment and a very deep sewer connection in a state controlled road. It was my least favourite project because there were a number of service clashes that really threw a spanner in the works. Talking about learning the hard way, this really was a challenge and required constant design adjustments and negotiations to make things work for both Council, the client and TMR at the same time.

What motivates you to come to work each day?

Having a bright office overlooking Kawana Lake is a big help! The office is very chilled and I also like the quick turnover of projects. This may sound a bit cliché, but at Topo there really is such a variety of projects that every new project requires a specific or slightly different strategy that needs a bit of thought, it is not just copy and paste. And I am totally into the coffee machine.

And last - what do you like to do on your spare time?

I am a bit of an outdoor person so I like to be out doing stuff, especially after having been in the office all day. I have gotten back into an exercise routine and am working on improving my fitness levels by doing all the classes at the gym that I would normally consider out of my comfort zone, such as Grit Athletic, Boxercise and any other high intensity cardio classes. I love riding to work and usually ride three days a week, on the days where there are no gym classes straight after work.

We got a little dog last year and he loves going to the beach so we try and do that on the weekend. I also love beach fishing and will be trying my luck on the beach at Kawana very often, especially now that it is only a 10 minute drive.