CQU Mackay graduate Crystal Gill is loving her job at Centrelink in the nation's capital.After 12 months in the national capital, CQU graduate Crystal Gill from Mackay is loving her job but is still getting used to the less-than-tropical climate.

"Summers are a lot drier and far less humid and winters are just plain freezing," said Crystal.

"But aside from that I'm loving the challenge.  Every day is different, there's always something that needs attention, you're always learning and working with great people."

In January last year Crystal's career prospects took a big step forward when she was selected as one of 19 Centrelink Information Technology graduate recruits.

"I was ecstatic to get the call up to work for Centrelink.  It was a fantastic opportunity to expand my knowledge of computing, my skills base and explore a bigger world," she said.

Crystal officially graduated from CQU this year with a degree in information technology.

Prior to joining Centrelink, Crystal was working part-time at a Mackay primary school in charge of around 100 computers.

She now helps maintain a system that supports almost 32,000 desktop computers, 14 million customer records, and over 12 million online transactions every day.  

"The scale of the Centrelink systems can be quite overwhelming, but it's a very satisfying job and I feel very fortunate", said Crystal, who specialises in infrastructure support.  

For Crystal, helping keep the wheels oiled in Canberra following the recent Mackay floods had a personal significance.

"When I saw the pictures on television and learnt that my aunt's house in South Mackay was flooded, I was obviously quite concerned.

"But our family in Mackay banded together and cleaned up the mess. My aunt was also eligible for the Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment, which helped as well."

Centrelink is looking for graduates like Crystal who are keen to be launched onto the ladder of success.   Accounting, arts and humanities, audit, IT, business and commerce, communications and media, human resources, psychology and social science, public relations, social work and statistics graduates should visit http://www.centrelink.gov.au/ for more information and application forms.

Graduates interested have until the end of April to apply.