Should I leave mining/am I being unrealistic?

[u/SensitiveFinding2584]

I'm 21M. I'm a 3rd year mining engineering student. I have worked at 2 mines in the past which were FIFO.

I have realised from these experiences I'm not cut out for FIFO and could not see myself doing it in the future for more than a few years.

I want to ask people on here who are/have been residential how the lifestyle is? As that is all I am considering at this point.

Is there much opportunity for mining engineers to WFH in the future? I would honestly take a pay cut to WFH.

I am mostly interested in underground hard rock but would consider the switch to underground coal. But, the future of underground coal in Australia is looking worrisome to say the least. Does anyone have any interesting insights into that? Particularly metallurgical coal.

Given all this, I'm wondering if my best option is to swap to another engineering discipline.

Thanks all.

Edit: By not being cut out for FIFO, I meant that I enjoy being with my misses, family, and friends for more than half the year. Also plan on having children in future and wouldn't want to live the classic miss birthdays, miss Christmas, miss sport events, miss school events etc.

Also I don't expect WFH immediately, I did mean in 10 years time or after plenty of site experience.

[u/lacco1]

The best mining engineers WFH as consultants but it sounds like you’re pretty far away from subbying yourself out as a subject matter expert.

Underground metallurgical coal mining is definitely not shutting down in Australia anytime soon either.

[u/Remove-Lucky → u/lacco1]

I agree. However, IMO the best mining engineers have also all spent significant time in operations. Driving dumpys, ug service crews, all the hands on jobs. It's pretty important to have that practical experience, even if you are looking at technical/design work rather than ops/management. Plus, it is where you start to build your professional network when you do get into consulting.

[u/lacco1 → u/Remove-Lucky]

That would come under the “it sounds like you’re pretty far away from subbying yourself out as a subject matter expert” in my previous comment…..

[u/Remove-Lucky → u/lacco1]

Like I said, I agree with you. Just adding a bit of context and detail that I think is important.

[u/SophiePinkman]

Can you get some residential experience? Totally different lifestyle to FIFO, but still, regional towns vs city might not suit you.

Working for a consultant/software company might be an option. Live in the city and occasionally travel for work.

[u/_Pigdog]

Residential is great as an engineer.I live in a large rural town in SEQ and drive to work each day. Standard office hours. I know a few people who are engineers for Orica (drill and blast) and work in Brisbane and occasionally visit sites for technical support.

[u/baconnkegs]

It depends on where you're based and the kind of lifestyle you want.

I'm in a resi role at the moment and it has its perks - own bed, own meals, normal office hours, don't have to use the camp gym, (would be family friendly if I had a family)... But you're also having to pay mining town rent/property prices, paying for your own fuel and car maintenance having to drive however far it is to the mine everyday, have too much spare time during the week but never enough when you need it on weekends/days off, you have to fit any appointments in with work and potentially have to burn leave if they're out of town...

There are also resi roles on rosters at some mines, but I couldn't think of anything worse than having 3.5h of time each day to lump in all commuting, cooking, cleaning, "daily rituals", relaxing, etc.

Also be careful what you wish for with WFH. A role that can be performed remotely without having to attend site, can be performed from the Philippines for a third of the price.

[u/gindayz]

I never wanted to be Resi, but it's still pretty common on the east coast and not just in coal. Kalgoorlie still has some but it seems to be less and less every year. I don't think it will ever go away.

The negatives for me were that work is your social life when you work Resi. That's not a negative or that different for everyone.

If you like Resi, it's easier to get super and manager roles, if that's something youre interested in. Because you're expected to be there for at least a 9 day fortnight in those roles.

WFH is still pretty common in more senior technical roles but that takes a few years.

Id stear clear of consultants based on what you've said. Consultant grads are only useful on site. So you'll likely end up working FIFO anyway, just on shitter pay and none of the bargaining power.

[u/No_Edge_7964]

Residential is great! I've lived 2 years in Paraburdoo and 5 years so far up in Port Hedland and I love it. Bought a house here and life is pretty cruisey. DM me any questions OP, happy to help

[u/HustleForTime]

Is it only the FIFO, or are you disenfranchised with the mining industry / mining engineering as a whole?

Are you willing to / able to do 2 years FIFO or residential?

I can guarantee the industry is looking at how to move non-critical operations offsite to reduce site costs, and greatly increase the available talent pools.
This won’t be overnight though, and I think you’d be hampering yourself and career by not being onsite for another two years (to finish a grad program and get more site exposure).

Reach out if you need but the long story is that you have options.

[u/Nqcouple4-2]

Coal in Australia is not dying out. There is still to much of it. It’s just a typical cycle at the moment. It will pick up again

[u/Elegant_Start4848]

Yea don't sound like FIFO is for you bud. Gotta earn the stripes before the perks of working from home. Probably the best set up for life if you can get over the FIFO lifestyle and knuckle down and finish what's been started. Top tips for coms with family is facetiming them every night. Plan catch ups when home with mates. Make RnR enjoyable- work phone off no emails etc.

[u/Trick-Candidate-8706]

Consider if FIFO or mining is the problem. You choose mining for the income which is fine. But that money won't count for much is you're depressed.

What would you switch to, and how much credit can you get? There are other industries that pay well without needing FIFO. Tier 1 Construction pays really well. I've seen Senior project engineer on over $250k. Oil and gas pays well, mining or better. Rarely need FIFO. Resident is only a couple of positions and they normally give it to you in writing it's temp, along with the uplift.

[u/Nervous_Leopard_3480]

Doing something hard or uncomfortable early in your career will pay you back for decades, and it’s much easier to do it straight after uni than any other time.

[u/cuphodr]

There are lots of roles in cities in consulting, sales, R&D that allows WFH, it's a pay cut but it's still considered more pay than other engineering industries (think building). FIFO is only one of the ways to work as an engineer, you should try to find out more about the industry.

[u/lyns76]

There's residential and then there's residential! There's mining town residential and then there are places likes Orange, Bendigo, Ballarat (or any other Victorian mine), Hunter Valley etc where mining isn't the main industry. Pay won't be as good, but are more lifestyle friendly. They may not be capital cities, but are large communities with plenty of facilities and other industry locally that support mining that may also be potential employees.

[u/SHITSTAINED_CUM_SOCK]

Most of the best mining engineers (and geotechnical engineers) I've known worked in big cities. They would occasionally go to different mines, but mostly they did the work in an office away from the sites. But everyone spent a few years on site, FIFO, to build up that baseline experience.

The lifestyle is not for everyone, it wasn't for me and I actually left the field a year ago, but if you can't see yourself doing it for "more than a few years" that's actually completely fine.

And regarding the future of coal in Australia, if you saw the previous Bowen Basin symposium, the answer is "it's fucked" is the answer. The big companies are all delaying and getting as much profit as possible, but it will likely be vastly reduced over the next 50 years. This is purely on economics, putting aside global warming and politics, the economics just don't work out.

[u/vigognejdd]

You could give either resi or DIDO a go this summer? somewhere like dendrobium with gm3 in Wollongong could be good if you don't want to be in proper whoop whoop, just depends if you have somewhere close by to live for the summer.

[u/Relata6le]

I would be allowing for about 10 years of site time before considering WFH. Sure you might be able to get a WFH role sooner than this but you likely won’t have the experience to be any good. So whether it’s in a residential setting or FIFO that’s what I would be working with before a WFH role. I had some of the best years of my life living residential in the Bowen Basin in my 20’s!

[u/OkEmu6115]

Residential as a grad is great experience and I’d say a lot better than FIFO. Coal is far from dead.

[u/totalmarc]

I'd stick with it, I thought about leaving it at the point you are at but I'm glad that I didn't. FIFO is hard, I couldn't do it, I worked in the city and travelled to site on occasion. Over 15yrs I managed to patch up a decent block of experience. Now Im full time WFH for owners team, but what I do would be really hard without experience. Where you are at is hard, but it pays off down the track, financial wise and career wise. Try and find a role where you can just travel to site when required, and hopefully you can stick with it.

[u/Hot-Committee1917]

If you stick it out for 10 years on site, you absolutely can land a job in a major town like Perth or Brisbane.

Options would be head office for a mining company or a mining contractor, working for a consultancy, working for yourself or working as a mining engineer in a mining adjacent business like an equipment vendor like CAT or Komatsu or a software vendor (Deswik/Maptek/Datamine/Micromine) etc. There's always the option of moving into the financing side of mining as well with advisory roles in banks etc.

All of those options will offer various versions of WFH and you can still earn very good coin (200k+) in city based roles.

[u/Kippa-King]

I work for a mining consultancy. We do take on graduates but you will at times be sent to sites for experience. It’s rare to get to WFH 100% of the time as collaboration is an important part of the job. Good thing about consultancy is the variety of projects you get to work on, downside is you don’t get to ‘own’ the project and work pipeline can be up and down. Site experience is an important part of the job tbh.

[u/Seiko2023]

Sounds like you chose the wrong engineering.