Andrew Grill was sitting in the audience of an electronics industry dinner in 1992 when he realised his career would take a dramatic turn nine years later he's general manager of PropertyLook.com.au, a commercial property Web site.
Back in 1992, Grill was listening to the dinner's guest speaker outline a new engineering and business degree being offered by three South Australian universities, when he realised he didn't want to be an engineer all his life.
Grill was already in the third year of an electronic engineering degree but realised the new course was just what he was looking for.
"I enjoyed engineering, but wanted to be actively involved in the decisions being made by the business leaders I admired," he says.
The new course offered to create business-smart technologists by taking students who'd completed three years of an undergraduate electronic, electrical or computer science degree and adding two years of business training to produce graduates who could hit the ground running.
"The masters course was a great catalyst for me to see how suited I was for a role in marketing and management. I found my niche and haven't looked back since."
When he wasn't studying, Grill worked part-time in the telecommunications industry for the research department of the University of South Australia.
Grill says that part-time work made him more attractive to employers.
Since his studies in Adelaide, Grill has worked in a number of engineering roles, with British Aerospace, Motorola and Optus.
His big break came in 1995 when he found a work experience position with the Optus satellite broadcast operations centre.
Grill moved through the ranks at Optus. He developed the national data product that now underpins its e-commerce business, and was also involved in a number of strategic investment and process reviews.
In late 1998 Grill jumped ship to work for Telstra in its corporate and government marketing group and then moved into the emerging business area.
In his current job, Grill sees PropertyLook as part of the ``new, new economy the one that will actually make money and is an extension of an established business".
"Presenting property on the Internet is not new, but for commercial property it provides a natural extension to press ads and signboards. The commercial property industry has been slow at embracing the Internet as a sales channel, and we feel that PropertyLook is an excellent vehicle for agents to reach more clients."
Unlike other Internet ventures that employ large numbers of staff, PropertyLook uses an outsourced model. ``Everything except sales, marketing and strategy is handled by one of our partners," Grill says.
We don't need to employ 100 people when we can use our shareholders' facilities and staff to promote the site and develop new products and services.
"This business model makes sense and reduces the risk that so many of the dot coms have faced."
He plans to expand the site to list services that end-users require, such as moving, fit-out, design and telecommunications.
Grill is passionate about transferring his knowledge and experience to the next wave of business leaders.
He is currently developing the University of New South
Wales's first e-business unit for its master of business and
technology degree.
PROFILE: Andrew Grill
Title: General manager - PropertyLook
Age: 32
Qualifications: MBA in e-business, master of engineering in IT&T, associate diploma in electronic engineering.
Job history: Started at an electronic component distribution company; Motorola communications; University of South Australia's commercial arm, Techsearch; marketing and e-business at Telstra.
Highs: Working at the Australian Grand Prix; launching PropertyLook; developing a mobile satellite system for the Australian Army in East Timor.
Lows: Working for people who say "it can't be done" and for people who don't allow your initiative to shine through.