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Clean Energy Regulator

3.9
  • 100 - 500 employees

Sarah Yap

In the graduate program, I have had the opportunity to contribute towards our functions through a variety of tasks and projects in three rotations.

What's your job about?

The Clean Energy Regulator’s function is to reduce carbon emissions and increase the use of clean energy. This involves administering climate change law through our various schemes.

In the graduate program, I have had the opportunity to contribute towards our functions through a variety of tasks and projects in three rotations- from assessing applications for new solar and biomass power stations to intelligence gathering for business areas in the agency.

What's your background?

At a young age I made my way to Perth, Australia with from Singapore. I studied Geology at The University of Western Australia, as I have always been fascinated in science and gaining an understanding of Earth and its interacting systems and processes. Unlike many of my peers however, I didn’t go down the path of the mining/ oil and gas sector.

During my time at Uni I always made sure to try save up from casual work and travel whenever I could - This included backpacking USA, Europe and South East Asia, a 6 month internship stint in Singapore and a study exchange course in China.

I moved to Canberra and started the Clean Energy Regulator graduate program in 2017. I’ve learnt so much this throughout my various rotations, it’s been an enjoyable yet challenging year.

Could someone with a different background do your job?

Definitely! – The work within the agency is so varied and the point of the graduate program is to get a better feel of what you enjoy doing and see where your strengths lie. Writing, communications skills and strategic thinking are the essentials, rather than technical knowledge from studies.

What's the coolest thing about your job?

For me it’s knowing that at the end of the day the work I do for the agency is contributing directly or indirectly to a cause that I am personally invested in. During the graduate program some of the things I have enjoyed most include filming and producing a digital media clip as part of our year-long graduate project, gathering tactical intelligence for reports on various entities and helping to organise events for some of the agency committees I am involved in.

3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...

  • Don’t stress the small things! Perfect grades aren’t everything (famous last words while watching the sun rise after an all-nighter). Building a good work life balance and investing more time into hobbies/travel/relationships in most cases is more worth your time than the difference between HD and a D grade.
  • Be open minded and try as many new things and opportunities as possible- volunteer, join a club, travel and socialise and make contacts. These can open doors for you in the future.
  • It doesn’t matter if you don’t know exactly where you want to go career wise just yet – you’ll eventually figure out what you want to do with the experiences you go through.