Aspects of your professional role:

1. Assessing applications from various people/companies to clear trees or take water.
2. Undertaking environmental impact assessments to best manage these natural resources- often requiring site/field inspections.
3. Assisting the community/ property owners- answering questions, offering advise, etc.
4. Interacting/communicating with managers, co-workers, and other government departments.
5. Managing/organising 10 to 20 applications at any given time, as they can take days, weeks, and even months to process.

Skills/Knowledge neededed:

1. University degree, with an emphasis on the environment
2. Interpersonal skills, as you’re always talking to people- managers, co-workers, other government departments, and the public.
3. Problem solving, you have to do plenty of this- it makes you use your brain, and the job never becomes mundane.
4. Good organisation skills and the ability to prioritise, both are very much required.
5. Common sense/ initiative.

Recommendations to students wanting to work in your field:

1. Get your degree
2. Investigate the process you must go through to work within a government department. It’s a long and involved route, talk to someone who has been through the procedure before.
3. Consider if you genuinely care about environmental issues, as it will make the job a lot easier and enjoyable if you do.
4. It’s an excellent long term position, not suited to short stays- a lot to learn when you first start, with no easy way to just jump in quickly.

Why would you recommend working in this field?

1. This position offers the opportunity to be actively involved in managing the environment, while putting your knowledge and skills to good use.
2. It is an excellent chance to develop you professional skills, in a work place that offers a lot of guidance and training.
3. Excellent opportunities to move up through the department for those willing to make the effort and take the time to do so.
4. Flexible hours- as long as you average 7 ½ hour a day you can basically arrive and leave as you please. You can also accrue flexi-days (days off).

Why would you recommend working/living in the South West (or regional areas)?

For me personally, the south-west offers a good balance between life-style and career.

1. Small congestion free towns, with basically all the facilities you need and want.
2. Only 2 hours from Perth (airport and Subiaco Oval), and within very close proximity to amazing coastlines, secluded beaches and dense untouched forests.
3. Lots of good jobs, and you’re living where other people go for holidays.
4. For the surfers, world class waves and plenty of uncrowded surf spots.

Why would you recommend ECU South West?

ECU SW has all the benefits of a regional campus, small class sizes and access to your lectures. This may not sound like much, but it is a big advantage for students.

Personally, the city is not my thing. By attending ECU SW you are able to study and live in the south west, a lifestyle unavailable to those in the city.

What would you like to add?

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with myself when I enrolled at ECU (and I still don’t for that matter), but what I learnt at uni and the skills I developed have given me so many more options than I had previously. It was the best thing I could have done for myself. While it was also the most enjoyable three years of my life.