Hard work and long hours have paid off for David Fitzpatrick.
By Shaun Inguanzo
AT JUST 25, production engineer David Fitzpatrick is only a rookie in his industry.
But with the Greater Dandenong Chamber of Commerce recently announcing Mr Fitzpatrick as the city’s Youth Enterprise award winner, he is no doubt a rising star.
The honour, which recognises the best young employees across all businesses in Greater Dandenong, became Mr Fitzpatrick’s at this month’s Premier Regional Business Awards ceremony after he was nominated by his chief financial controller, Geoff Hodgens.
“It came as a surprise,” he said.
“I was really excited to win the award. I don’t know how else to put it.”
“I was really proud that people had recognised me, I was staying back (at work) every day.”
Mr Fitzpatrick has been an employee with Lyndhurst-based car parts manufacturer Dair Industries for just over two years, where he began as a casual machine operator.
Dair Industries manufactures car parts for Toyota and Holden, and sometimes Ford Australia, but despite the company’s large clients, Mr Fitzpatrick never envisaged it would be his first break in the industry.
“When uni finished I was looking for an engineering job, with no success,” he said.
“I took a job at Dair as a casual machine operator, and one day approached the owner and said I had just finished a degree, and if he had any openings I would be interested in taking it.”
It was a move that spelt the beginning of an engineering career for Mr Fitzpatrick.
“(Dair) took me on and created a role for me that previously didn’t exist.”
Now a production engineer, Mr Fitzpatrick is responsible for a variety of tasks, from creating tables to meet occupational health and safety standards, and designing new machines and automating processes to increase efficiency.
He said the most interesting part of his job was the freedom it offered.
“I think it’s the freedom to do what I see needs to be done and to be able to see the results straight away, where I see a process is not running well, and then see what changes can be made and then the implementation and seeing how it affects the company.”
