Graduates + Interns
Commence your professional career as a graduate or gain professional experience through a meaningful internship at Abley.
Graduate Programme
The Graduate Programme is a formalized programme which provides structure and ensures a consistent approach to graduate development. The programme is available to all graduates in the business.
The Graduate will predominantly be supported through the programme by their manager. However, the Graduate may also seek technical guidance from their buddy or other senior employees.
A wide variety of skills are included in the Graduate Programme, namely:
* Technical trainings
* Non-technical trainings
* Marketing yourself and the business
* Breadth of work
* Professional development
* Project management
* Understanding of the business
* Mentoring
* Committee participation
* Company culture
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Coaching + support
Managers meet with their team members individually each month to discuss how they are progressing and provide any coaching and support needed.
Annual performance and development reviews are completed and that will input into decisions on promotions and salary reviews. It is also an opportunity to identify future development opportunities.
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Learning + development
We offer external training and learning opportunities, through conference attendance, structured courses, webinar and seminars.
We have regular internal technical training sessions and a structured graduate programme.
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Mentoring
Graduates have the option to have a mentor. The focus of mentoring is on career and professional wellbeing rather than focusing on current day-to-day operational and technical challenges. The mentoring relationship may be a long-term or short-term commitment.
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Professional memberships
We strongly encourage all employees to become a member of a professional organisation and/or technical interest group that are most relevant to their position. Abley is an accredited Engineering New Zealand (ENZ) Professional Development Partner (PDP). We work in partnership with ENZ to develop our engineering employees, strengthen our business and support the wider engineering profession.
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Rotations
It is particularly important that graduates rotate between the different teams within the transportation or location intelligence groups. This ensures they are exposed to doing different types of work. Team rotation will normally take place on a six-month to one-year basis, depending on team composition and resourcing.
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Social activities + lots of fun
We have an active social committee who organise a variety of events to bring our team together throughout the year. Whether it be sporting, cultural, family-friendly or a casual get together, events are planned to suit a wide range of interests and demographics.
What to expect as an Intern
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Professional experience
We provide an opportunity to gain unique work experience in a supportive environment. There will be lots to learn and plenty of projects to work on.
Once you finish your internship you will have a clear understanding of the type of work we do in the discipline your internship is in. You can then make an informed decision on your career path post-university.
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Meet new people
There will be plenty of opportunities to meet people in-person, via email or video conferencing.
Our interns support their more experienced colleagues, and attend client meetings, so making connections and maintaining positive relationships will be key.
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Part of the team
As an intern, you are treated as part of the team. You attend team / staff meetings and are included in any social events we have while you are completing your internship.
We make your experience as welcoming as possible.
Recruitment Process
Graduate + Intern FAQs
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Our online applications for yearly intakes open in May (for graduates) and July (for interns). Check out our careers page for other openings throughout the year. You'll need to submit a cover letter, CV and up-to-date academic transcript.
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You must have the right to live and work in New Zealand. Ideally you would hold a full clean driver's licence, however we consider those on a restricted licence.
For graduates, you must have completed all requirements of your degree before your commencement date as a graduate at Abley. If the practical requirements of the degree are not completed (but the academic requirements are), we will consider a summer internship to enable completion of the practical requirements prior to taking up the graduate role.
For engineering interns, you will be in your penultimate year of study towards a honors degree, postgraduate or masters’ qualification in engineering. For other disciplines, we consider internships if they are a requirement of the qualification being completed.
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We have three offices in New Zealand - Christchurch Ōtautahi, Wellington Te Whanganui-a-Tara and Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau. All of our offices are centrally located with public transport only a hop, skip and a jump away. If you’re a cyclist (like many of the Abley team) we also have great cycling facilities too.
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Each year we look to employ one graduate transportation engineer or planner, a graduate spatial advisor and/or junior software developer.
We will have one internship for a transportation engineering student and will consider an internship for spatial and software development.
We’re looking for students who have completed a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in the following disciplines:
* Civil Engineering
* Natural Resources Engineering
* Transportation Engineering
* Other engineering disciplines
* Bachelor of Science
* Bachelor of Arts
* Geography
* Economics/econometrics
* Maths/Statistics
* Engineering Science
* Computer Science
* Operations research (MSOR)
Engineering Bachelor degrees will be completed with honours, thus Washington Accord accredited.
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The graduate programme has been designed so grads can complete a variety of work over their first two years of their career. This covers technical, non-technical, marketing, business development and training tasks.
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Salary will reflect the skills you bring and the advantage you offer. We are a gender pay neutral organisation and offer a broad salary-benefits package, these include:
* Flexible working
* Ongoing learning + development
* Variety of work
* Graduate programme
* Mentoring + support
* Graduation leave
* Wardrobe allowance for grads
* Wellness package
* Range of social events
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When writing your cover letter and CV, we want to see your passion for what you have applied for - whether that be transportation, spatial or software development. You want to capture our attention in your cover letter, so think about your point of difference. Remember to include the 'why'.
Include skills from part-time or fixed-term employment along with volunteering work you may have completed. You will have learnt skills from these roles - whether that be time management, leadership, communication, relationship building or problem solving skills.
When looking at your academic transcript, we would like to see year-on-year improvement along with relevant courses for the role you are applying for.
For more information, check out our presentation from the 2022 UC STEM Careers Fair.
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I joined Abley as a graduate in 2016, after completing a BE Civil (Hons). Transport engineering appealed to me because of its focus on people and the environment. While working at Abley, the fantastic mentoring team culture has meant I’ve developed a broad understanding of the different facets of transport engineering.
Ravindu Fernando
Senior Transportation Engineer
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I first started at Abley as an intern over the summer during my university years. After completing a BSc in Geography and Post Graduate Diploma in GIS, I was offered a position as a Graduate GIS Consultant. The culture within Abley encourages staff to achieve their best and put themselves forward for industry awards and certifications.
Hamish Kingsbury
Principal Integration Specialist