02 Sep 20 Years. 20 Stories: The Gap Year That Became a Career 

Some careers begin with a carefully considered plan.

Christien Specha’s began with a year away from university and a message from a friend asking whether he wanted to try some hands-on work.

At the time, Christien was studying to teach. He knew very little about audiovisual technology and had no idea that the opportunity would shape the next decade of his life.

“I took a year off university, and Andrew (our now CEO here at Concept AV) messaged me asking if I wanted some hands-on experience,” Christien remembers. “My dad always said that anything you learn on the tools is a skill that stays with you. So I thought, why not give it a go?”

What was meant to be a one-year gap became the beginning of an entirely different career.

Learning to do things properly

Christien joined Concept AV in 2014 with no previous industry experience.

What stood out immediately was how welcoming the team was and how seriously the company approached his development.

Rather than simply sending him to the site and hoping he would learn by watching others, Concept AV paired him with an experienced team member, Joel.

For his first two weeks, Christien focused on the fundamentals. He learned about connections, soldering, and crimping cables.

It was a small starting point, but it meant that when he arrived at his first project at the University of Technology Sydney, he could already contribute.

“The foreman asked what I could actually do,” Christien says. “I told him I could do this one small thing. He was surprised that I had only been with the company for a few weeks and could already be useful on site.”

Looking back, Christien sees those early weeks as an important foundation. He was not only taught how to complete a task. He was taught how to complete it properly.

That standard stayed with him as he moved through the industry and, later, began inspecting the work of other contractors himself.

More than one job title

Over almost a decade with Concept AV, Christien worked across installation, rack building, drafting, design, engineering, project management and sales support.

Very few people in the AV industry have experienced so many parts of a project in such depth.

Andrew believes that breadth is one of Christien’s greatest strengths.

“He has literally done almost everything required to complete an AV job,” Andrew says. “Not just doing something for a day, but actually spending the time to learn it.”

That progression often began with curiosity rather than a formal career plan.

While working on the tools, Christien became interested in the drawings used by the installation teams. He went home, found a copy of AutoCAD and tried to recreate them.

When he showed the result to Concept AV Director Tom Squillascioti, Tom did not simply congratulate him and send him back to his existing role.

He saw potential.

“That could easily have been dismissed,” Christien says. “Instead, Tom saw it as another avenue I could explore.”

It led Christien into drafting and engineering, where his installation experience became a genuine advantage. He understood what technicians needed from a drawing because he had been the person using those drawings on site.

As his responsibilities expanded, he also began to understand how sales, design, engineering, installation and project delivery all affected one another.

Concept AV had not just taught him a collection of separate skills. It had helped him understand the complete project.

Trusted to keep growing

Christien believes trust played a major role in that development.

He was often given opportunities before he had mastered every part of a new role. When something did not go perfectly, the response was not to take away the opportunity.

Instead, the conversation focused on what support, training, or experience would help him improve.

“There were times when I did not get everything right,” he says. “But the response was never, ‘He failed, put him back where he was.’ It was, ‘What can we do to help prevent this from happening again?’”

That attitude gave Christien room to grow without feeling that one mistake would define him.

It also meant employees were not limited by the position they originally joined the business to perform.

“If you showed a genuine interest in another part of AV, the company was willing to trust you and give you a chance,” he says.

A project that tested everything

The NSW State Emergency Service headquarters in Wollongong remains the project Christien remembers most vividly.

It was one of the most difficult projects he worked on, but also the one he is most proud of.

Christien was involved from the early sales discussions and consultant engagement through to site delivery, supervision and the additional works that followed.

“It was probably the first project where I saw everything from the very beginning through to handover,” he says.

It was also a project that placed him under significant pressure.

At one point, Christien recognised that he needed more on-site support and contacted Andrew.

Within days, Andrew and other members of the team had joined him. They remained involved for the following two months, helping bring the project to a successful conclusion.

The client was happy and later brought Concept AV back to complete further work.

For Christien, the experience showed that asking for help was not treated as a weakness.

“If someone called out for assistance, the company made sure that person did not sink by themselves.”

Showing up when it mattered

That willingness to support one another appeared again and again during Christien’s time with Concept AV.

He remembers receiving a phone call late one afternoon asking whether he could be at a university site by 6 pm and stay until the work was finished.

When he arrived, around 10 additional employees had also answered the call.

Most had not been involved in the original project. They simply knew another member of the team needed help.

There was an understanding that, one day, it could be their project facing the same pressure.

Importantly, Concept AV’s leaders were not asking people to do something they would not do themselves.

“The mentality was never, ‘We expect you to be there,’” Christien says. “It was, ‘We will be there with you.’”

That made a difference.

People were willing to step in because they knew the same support would be there for them when they needed it.

Carrying the experience forward

When Christien eventually left Concept AV, he took an unusually broad set of skills with him.

Within nine months of joining his next employer, he was asked to lead its engineering team.

Today, he works at Monash University, helping design and deliver AV environments across approximately 2,500 rooms. It is a full-circle moment for Christien, having left university and his planned teaching path to join Concept AV for a gap year. 

The role draws on almost every part of his Concept AV experience.

His installation background helps him understand what can realistically be delivered. His design and engineering experience shape the technical solution. His project management experience helps him coordinate people and expectations around the project.

“I genuinely believe the skills Concept AV gave me are why I am at Monash today,” Christien says.

The one-year gap year never quite ended.

Instead, it took him back to a university from a completely different direction and gave him a career he had never expected.

The experience people remember

At Concept AV’s 20th anniversary celebration earlier this year, Christien crossed paths with a former client he had not seen for years.

The client stopped him, remembered his name and began talking about the first project they had delivered together.

For Christien, the encounter captured another reason Concept AV has endured.

Clients remember the experience.

They remember being supported from the first conversation through design, delivery, handover and ongoing service. They remember installers who cared about the finish, project managers who took responsibility and service technicians who tried to solve the problem rather than immediately reach for the easiest replacement.

No business completes every project perfectly.

Longevity comes from what happens when there is pressure, complexity or an unexpected problem.

Do people disappear, assign blame and move to the next job?

Or do they stay, support each other and take responsibility for the outcome?

Christien saw Concept AV answer that question many times during his career.

It answered it when he was a new starter learning his first connection.

It answered it when he wanted to explore drafting.

It answered it when a project became difficult, and he asked for help.

And it answered it through the relationships that remained long after his final day with the business.

What was meant to be a one-year detour became the foundation of Christien’s professional life.

That is part of Concept AV’s 20-year story.