Oliver Hopping

6.00 AM
6.00 am being a bit of an early start I try and hit snooze only once. I generally start my day with a hot breakfast consisting of eggs, bacon, and toast. After this, I hit the shower and get ready to start my day. Before I leave home, I make sure to grab my work laptop and mobile but also my PPE as I am currently on rotation at the Milperra NSW Non-Ferrous Yard. 

7.00 AM
I leave home and hit the motorway, unfortunately for me, the Milperra yard is an hour’s travel with Sydney’s morning traffic. However, I use this time to relax, listen to Triple J and catch up on any podcasts. 

8.00 AM 
After arriving at work, I park up at my desk and answer any pending emails. I monitor our NSW  “Scrap Metal” enquires account and respond to any potential ABN customers as well as our public customers. I also prepare a Metal price report surrounding the London Metal Exchange (LME) and foreign currencies. 

9.00 AM 
After completing my various admin/office duties I venture out into the NF yard. This rotation is incredibly important in gaining valuable metal recycling knowledge necessary for becoming a qualified trading representative and therefore purchasing metals. The first thing I do as I enter the yard is looking at our stock or material and start listing the products in my head. Before I entered the NF scrap metal recycling industry, I had no idea of the magnitude of Sims’ scrap metal and all the various material types and grading. By Inspecting our bales, it gives me a good idea of the material and therefore how much we will have to export.

11.00 AM
Being out in the yard allows me to see all the unusual metal types coming in over the weighbridge. Our experienced yard staff with many years of practice can easily identify most metal and wire types simply by looking at the contents of a bin. However, to build up my knowledge I stand with my magnet to identify ferrous and non-ferrous metals and discuss the grading of the metal/wire. Our staff tell me what to look out for and how we can possibly upgrade this load.

1.00 PM
Lunch Time- I enjoy lunch as I am able to catch up with the other cadet currently on rotation in the Milperra Yard. As an engineering Cadet, Bella is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to our machinery with inputs and outputs and therefore allows me to better understand how our recycling yards operate.

2.00 PM
Our final container arrives in the yard to be loaded. Supervising this allows me to gain valuable experiencing in seeing not only how our containers are loaded but also how the material is bailed in preparation for shipping.

3.00 PM 
Finally, to end my day I spend time in the office completing and responding to any pending emails. I also support the other traders with any of their admin duties, as being out on the road all day with meeting customers and such can prohibit them from completing such tasks. At the end of each day, I usually have a quick chat with my manager Tim and mentor Matt to discuss my rotation and see how I am going. Today we discussed my next rotation which will be out on the road with one of the traders, practicing my purchasing skills for all metals to be recycled at any of our Sims Metal locations.

4.00 PM
Usually after leaving work and hitting the motorway, I turn up the radio and enjoy the ride home. Today I’m visiting my local anytime fitness to get some important exercise in, it also helps me declutter my mind and prepares me for the next day at Sims Metal.

Thinking of experiencing life as a Sims Limited Graduate? Sign up to GradAustralia to receive job alerts for Sims Limited.