Starting her journey with Compass Group in 2013 as a FIFO utility worker, Courtney Millen was passionate, driven and willing to give anything a go. Experiencing more than she expected over the past eight years, Courtney shares her story and how each step has led to where she believes she’s meant to be….
“I started my career at Compass Group in our WA relief team and worked for three months casually at Tropicana before flying into Sunrise Dam, where I was asked to stay full-time. I ended up spending five and a half years at Sunrise and worked in a variety of different positions.
While I started out as an all-rounder working in Housekeeping, Catering, Mine-site cleaning and Bar and Retail, eventually I became the full-time Housekeeping Supervisor and oversaw the day-to-day duties of all Housekeepers, Grounds workers, Bus drivers, Bar and Retail staff and the AROs.
After a couple years in this role, I stepped up again into a Utility Supervisor position and then the last six months on site, I moved into an Administration position. After this time, I decided that I was ready to work in Perth and thankfully a position became available in the Recruitment team. I was successful in being selected for the role and spent the next two years working on the BHP portfolio, recruiting for the positions that I had worked in myself on-site.
For as long as I could remember, I was always a part of initiatives in the Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) team. Even when I was on-site, every time we had Clontarf out for a site visit or when the D&I team headed out to site, I would always be involved, and I was a mentor for Indigenous staff members that worked at Sunrise Dam. When I joined the Recruitment team, I was still passionate about D&I activities and ensuring that Indigenous Recruitment was a huge focus for myself and other recruiters. So, when the opportunity to join the D&I team arose, I couldn’t believe it and I knew that was where I was meant to be.
There’s a lot of memorable experiences over the last eight years but one that sticks in my mind is working early mornings at the airport. Being out on the tarmac, doing runway inspections and getting ready to marshal a plane in as the sun is rising, is a whole other experience. I’ll never forget the crisp fresh air and colours of the sky as the sun comes up, right before a busy day of work.
The thing I love most about Compass Group is the diversity in all the different roles and career paths you can go down. When I started out as a utility worker eight years ago, I had no idea what I wanted to do or what path to go down. Experiencing life on a mine site at such a young age and getting the chance to not only work in all the different roles but having managers to learn from and guide me has really helped me to find myself and discover the direction I’ve wanted to go in.
I feel really fortunate that the people I’ve worked with over the past eight years have been amazing and like a second family. Working on site, even though the work is not glamorous, you make the most of it and have the best time with each other. Everyone is in the same boat and at the end of the day, we are all there to support each other through it. When I transitioned back to Perth and started working in the Support Office, I luckily found the same type of support and I look forward to coming into work each day and doing what I love.”
