What's your job about?
My employer is BCD Group, which is a multi-disciplinary engineering company, my area of responsibility is within the planning discipline. My day-to-day ranges from writing resource consent applications for clients and submitting them to council, to processing resource consent applications for district councils. I aid clients in understanding what they can build due to city plan requirements and where the envelope can be pushed. A project I have worked on recently involved writing a resource consent application to council for a site to have wider vehicle crossings to allow trucks to service an industrial building. This also needed the relocation of a streetlight which was a separate application I hadn’t done before! Every day there is a new project or new application which increases my knowledge of the industry and other disciplines. A resource consent application is a report that outlines why a project should be able to be built outside of what the city plan requirements are. Utilising specialist reporting from other disciplines a resource consent application brings all this information together to supply a case to council as to why your project should be able to go ahead and what you are going to do to ensure the effects on the surrounding environment are not more than minor.
What's your background?
I grew up in Tauranga where I went to Tauranga Girls College. I was convinced I wasn’t going to go to university until my final year when I decided to apply for the University of Waikato and the halls of residence to see if I got in. I got accepted and was placed in my first pick of halls of residence (College Hall). I had initially applied for a Bachelor of Social Sciences majoring in Geography, but that quickly changed in the first week as I went to an anthropology lecture on my 3rd day and decided the degree wasn’t for me. I had also attended an environmental planning lecture that day, so that night I went back to my halls and changed my entire degree (it is easy to change degrees at university if you need to!). Environmental planning really stood out to me as I really like to understand how cities work. I grew up in a neighbourhood on the outskirts of Tauranga where rural land was constantly being developed into residential land which I didn’t fully understand why this was occurring and wanted to do something about it. Once I finished my degree, I was employed by BCD Group where I have currently been in a graduate position for a year, but overall have worked here for 18 months as I worked part time through my final semester of uni.
Could someone with a different background do your job?
This job would be possible with a different background, I would think someone who enjoys report writing and collating information in a presentable way would be able to become an environmental planner. Confidence in your ability to decide is a key aspect of this role, this includes making decisions on behalf of clients and making educated decisions to supply the best outcome for clients.
What's the coolest thing about your job?
I love being provided with a different challenge every day. No two jobs are the same. The types of tasks I enjoy the most are when I’m collaborating with clients to achieve great outcomes, the best feeling is getting a resource consent granted with minimal further requests of information from council. I also love organising the social events for my coworkers as a part of the social committee as I enjoy bringing everyone together to celebrate our hard work!
What are the limitations of your job?
There is a lot of responsibility in this role, as you must make educated decisions on a day-to-day basis and constantly remind yourself, you are the professional who people are coming to for advice. If you are unsure, ask questions! We often talk about ‘eating the frog first,’ completing your most challenging task of the day before you do any other work, this important to take on board even if you feel like you’ve messed up.
3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student: