‘The orientation days at Trinity were so exhilarating – coming to terms with the new environment, new friends, and the most welcoming and enthusiastic teaching staff. The non-technical subjects offered at TCFS – History of Ideas (HOI), Drama and Literature – were refreshing and exciting.
‘I was also actively involved in TCFS extracurricular activities, where I took part in Glen Jennings’ (then our Literature lecturer) project to recreate Macbeth on film, Felicity Fallon’s singing club, and established and lead the TCFS a cappella (unaccompanied) singing group.
‘For several years after I graduating from TCFS, I also had the opportunity to be casually employed by TCFS as a student host for orientation activities (including the camping trip!), as well as a dance teacher for the TCFS Dance Club.
‘I went on to study a Bachelor of Engineering (IT) – Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Melbourne Uni, graduating from university in 2006.
‘I was lucky enough to be immediately offered a job with a start-up electronics engineering consulting firm, Procept. They had advertised through the university’s Careers Centre, and came along to our final year project exhibition, Endeavour.
‘It was there where I was able to demonstrate to them that I had developed relevant engineering skills that were aligned with their core business needs. It’s great to hear that Trinity is now offering similar services.
‘However, I was aware that the electronics design industry in Australia is small. In 2007 I secured a role with Aurecon, a leading multinational engineering consultancy firm. It was there where I began my career in the railway industry, as a railway signaling engineer.
‘Shortly after I took on my new role, I knew that I wanted a more challenging career path, and Rail Project Management seemed fulfilling. In early 2010, I completed a two-year online part-time Postgraduate Diploma in Railway Signalling course offered by Central Queensland University, and I joined Opus Rail in 2010, a specialist rail engineering consulting firm in Melbourne.
‘At Opus Rail, I held a variety of roles in various projects: Lead Design Engineer, Standards Author, Design Reviewer, Project Manager and Requirements Manager. My experiences there set me on my current career path in an emerging management discipline called Systems Engineering, which is the management of large complex engineering projects.
‘Last year, I joined Metro Trains Melbourne (MTM) as a Requirements Specialist, with the goal of establishing good systems engineering practices in the Victorian rail industry.
‘While I have had a rewarding engineering career, I'm very passionate about the performing arts. It started back in Kuala Lumpur, when my parents decided it would be a good idea to send my brother and I for children’s Latin dance classes (amongst many other activities). That developed into competitive Latin (Dancesport) dancing in my teens, and later included Ballroom dancing as a young adult in Melbourne.
‘I then picked up Ballet, Jazz, Contemporary and Tap dancing, and more recently received singing coaching and performed with various amateur musical theatre companies around Melbourne.
‘My most recent theatre role was as King Mongkut in Babirra's "The King and I" in mid-2015, for which I was nominated for Best Male Performer in a Leading Role by the (amateur) Music Theatre Guild of Victoria.’
– Ju-Han Soon, February Main 2002
Image: Ju-Han Soon as King Mongkut "The King and I", mid-2015: ‘Happiness is a balanced life style – p
