Despite being South Australian born and bred, Finance Business Support Officer Amanda Kraljev admits to having a soft spot for Queensland rugby league thanks to a love of former star Mal Meninga.
"I've worked in quite a few spots around South Australia over the years," Amanda says.
I spent seven years up in Roxby Downs and Olympic Dam and I'm currently based in Adelaide.
"I'm a Port Adelaide AFL fan through and through, but any footy team that hosted Mal Meninga is in my heart too!"
Amanda's experience has seen her work in the oil and gas, utilities and infrastructure sectors, all generally male dominated. She says one of the skills she's picked up over the years is how to speak up.
"My daughter is just starting out in her career, and I think her generation are much better at saying what they think, and speaking up if they feel something isn't right," Amanda says.
"I think it's something I learned on the job."
One of the other things Amanda learned on the job was the importance of getting involved.
Amanda is often one of the first to put her hand up to help organise site events, whether for formal initiatives like International Women's Day, or more informal sessions to get the team together. Amanda coordinated a session for International Women's Day with colleagues from a few different sites in the Adelaide area, including Telco and Defence, where they shared their experiences as women in the infrastructure services industry.
Whilst many people were hunkered down and keeping to themselves during the worst of COVID-19 in 2020, Amanda says she actually made new connections.
"When Richard Kelleway invited us to share our stories via video back in the first few months of working from home due to coronavirus, I thought why not," she laughs.
"I got some great feedback from people all over Infrastructure Services, many of them commenting on my footy affiliations since I was wearing a Port Adelaide scarf."
This is all on top of Amanda's day job as the Finance Business Support Officer, in which she is coordinating daily invoices to the client for completed jobs, raising and processing purchase orders and managing various admin for the team.
Amanda is already working on the next event, a BBQ to raise funds in support of Cure for Cancer. We're sure it'll be a great success.