Lauren Campbell: HVAC high-flyer

Air Conditioning Service Technician

Lauren Campbell started with building services company A.G. Coombs QLD straight out of school, and now she has a trade and multiple achievements under her belt at just 24 years of age.

As an Air Conditioning Service Technician at A.G. Coombs QLD, Lauren Campbell works on an extensive range of commercial buildings, from small shopping centres to large-scale universities.

Providing ongoing servicing of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment, as well as covering HVAC breakdowns and repairs, Campbell has excelled in her role, completing her Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Apprenticeship in 2020.

Her career journey has been full of experiences since joining A.G. Coombs QLD in 2017 – including a lot of firsts, she says. “Gaining my first full-time job has allowed me to take my first flight, travel for the first time to places like Melbourne, Sydney and Port Douglas and also achieve smaller firsts such as backing a trailer and composing a quote,” says Campbell. “My journey at A.G. Coombs QLD has always brought me great joy.”

“I love the team I work in, and I am excited to see where I can go in this industry as there are vast opportunities – you just need to know how to grab hold of them.”

Looking back, Campbell says she loved being outdoors and being active from an early age. She would follow her dad around and ask questions about what he was doing, something she says she still does to this day.

This passion for learning continued into her school years, and as graduation loomed, Campbell started to think about what she wanted her future to look like. During school she worked at Kmart, but she knew she wanted to branch out of retail into a more hands on industry. She also didn’t want to jump into a university degree or career on a whim.

“I was still unsure about where I wanted to take my career, so my father suggested I do some work experience in the construction industry alongside my retail job,” says Campbell. “I jumped at the chance because I simply wanted to experience the unknown.”

The opportunity arose to do work experience with A.G. Coombs QLD during the September school holidays of her Grade 12 schooling, and she’s thrived within the company ever since.

“I loved it,” she says. “I saw the potential to learn and thought that it would be, at worst, a great starting point in life and, at best, a career that could see me progress all the way to the top.”

Today, as a fully qualified tradesperson, Campbell’s workday typically consists of repairing and servicing HVAC equipment, which can range from washing filters and changing belts, to investigating issues and faults in equipment. She also mentors the apprentices within the company, teaching them the various tasks that are required to maintain a building’s HVAC system.

Currently on light duties due to an injury, Campbell is working on a lifecycle report for a building she looks after as part of her role with A.G. Coombs QLD, requiring her to attend the building site and complete a condition report on all of the HVAC equipment for the building manager. The report’s findings predict the life expectancy of each piece of equipment, enabling the building manager to prepare a budget for replacement or repairs.

Campbell says it’s these kinds of tasks that remind her how versatile her job is. “Every day is different,” she says. “I am able to be outdoors and interact with people all day long.”

“Problem solving is my favourite part of what I do – there is nothing better than being faced with a challenge, figuring it out and seeing the satisfaction on the clients’ faces when you present them with the solution.”

It’s no secret that Campbell loves what she does, and the sector has recognised her hard work and dedication along the way. In 2021, she won the Air Conditioning Mechanical Contractors Association (AMCA) Onsite Tradesperson Award. Also in that year, Campbell was named Harry Hauenschild Apprentice of the Year at the Queensland Training Awards, winning against apprentices from a number of sectors across the state.

But closest to her heart, she says, was winning A.G. Coombs QLD’s highly prestigious Apprentice Award – the Alan Coombs Training Award – in 2020. “To win this award with the recognition of the entire company was amazing,” says Campbell.

In her six years in the construction industry, Campbell says she has gained an abundance of new knowledge, had a wealth of opportunities and has been supported by A.G. Coombs

QLD to be the best Air Conditioning Service Technician she can be. When she first joined the company, she says she didn’t even know that air conditioning was its own sector in the construction industry. “I didn’t realise how much of the city is run by air conditioning,” says Campbell. “People rely on us.”

Now, knowing the vast opportunities the industry presents, Campbells advice to those looking for a career in construction is to be open.

“The construction industry can be challenging at times, and I’m not going to sit here and say it was a breeze for me being a female that entered into a predominantly male workforce, but I love it,” she says. “The opportunities the industry can bring you is amazing – there are endless paths you can go down.”

“But ultimately, my advice would be to complete some work experience, as without doing work experience myself I would never have known about the air conditioning sector.

“In just six years, I’ve completed my four-year apprenticeship, have become a fully qualified Air Conditioning Service Technician, and have set the groundwork for many more opportunities to come.”

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