BHP Billiton S Africa : How our graduate program turbocharged Siyuans introduction to BHP

In 2018, we welcomed just under 200 graduating students from some of the world's leading universities to BHP. The breadth of academic specialisation in the most recent cohort is remarkable and includes fields as diverse as Mathematical Science and Biomedical Engineering.

Our graduate and student programs are carefully designed and managed to offer candidates joining BHP an exciting and fulfilling introduction to professional life. Extensive training and ongoing mentorship ensures new recruits are given the opportunity to discover how they can apply their unique skills and make a meaningful contribution across our global operations.

For Siyuan Liu from Hebei in China, it was an early passion for the tangible, real-life improvements that data analysis offers that led her to pursue a Bachelor of Science (Business Analytics) at the National University of Singapore. As a Graduate in our Technology team, Siyuan's first placement in Cybersecurity has seen her work alongside teams around the world to protect BHP's data and intellectual property.

At a recent graduate symposium in Perth, Western Australia, Siyuan and fellow graduates from Australia, Chile, Singapore and the US gathered in person for an in-depth introduction to BHP's commodity businesses and collaborated to solve complex manufacturing challenges during a Hackathon.

The most memorable part of the trip for Siyuan was spending time with operators in our Perth integrated and technology remote operations centres - and witnessing first-hand how crucial technology is for the stability, safety and security of our operations. This generated enormous pride amongst the group as they realised that their work even in another part of the world can truly improve the working lives of their site-based colleagues.

It's not always easy starting a new job but for Siyuan, her participation in the graduate program, building an international network of colleagues and being given the chance to actively contribute has offered a confidence that may otherwise have taken many working years to build.

For now, the future is bright as Siyuan looks ahead to her next placement and contemplates how she will pursue her passion and expertise for data analytics to support BHP's fully integrated and highly automated vision.