The work I have always found most rewarding is delivering public good – whether that’s working on policies that will have a real impact on speeding up delivery of new infrastructure, delivering a programme to improve capabilities in local authorities, or in government agencies, or setting targets for new homes.
Career journey and role
Growing up in a medium sized town in the midlands I hated seeing how poor quality development harmed my town, and wanted to work in a job where I could make things better. So working in planning in the public sector seemed like the best place to make a difference!
I started my career working for the Greater London Authority on their London Plan. I got involved in a lot of different areas of economic development – starting from identifying industrial land to release for housing or protect, researching office demand and policies to improve town centres, and ended up leading on planning for housing as I built my knowledge and skills.
This led me to want to further my career and I moved into planning in the Civil Service. This helped expand my experience into new policy areas and led to me specialising in infrastructure planning and skills development to support it. Infrastructure is one of the biggest challenges in planning, and most exciting area to work – but I may be biased.
I am now on secondment to the Environment Agency to work on developing their planning profession, and helping support their skills. Opportunities for secondment are a great thing about working in the public sector. The most difficult challenge I found when I first started out was working with others –
knowing how and who I needed to make connections with. I had a good buddy in my first role who helped me understand the organisation, and I challenged myself to build good working relationships with them – understand what makes them tick and how to get the best from them. I’ve tried to bring the same into each new role I have done.
Value of working in local government/public sector
Working in the public sector gives me good job flexibility. I work compressed hours – giving me an extra day to myself every other week and have been able to manage my work around life commitments. That doesn’t mean it’s easy – there’s a misconception that public servants are lazy. That’s not been my experience – my colleagues have always worked hard to meet tough challenges. The public sector also offers great opportunities for training and development, across a wide range of topics and skills.
I am really driven by my desire to improve places for the public good. Working in the public sector means I am working closely with elected politicians and leaders who want to improve places and communities by delivering improvements and developments based on what they need. Delivering things for the public good is what has kept me public sector for so long.
Chartership
I became chartered after a few years of working in planning. I didn’t go for chartership as early as possible – as I was still thinking about what I wanted from it. But being chartered has really helped in in developing my career in recent years, giving me access to great learning, giving me a structure for professional development and proving I have the skills and knowledge needed as a planner.
Advice
Make use of the opportunities available to you – they will help you understand what interests and drives you. Find a mentor, and work out what you want from them.
Remember working in the public sector is as much about people as it is about that outputs you deliver. Nurture your working relationships, try to understand what drives your political leaders.
Think about how you reflect on what you have learned and the evidence you can gather to get to chartership.
If I could give advice to my younger self, it would be to build the habit of reflection – thinking about what interests me, celebrating what I do well, and targeting where I want to build my understanding.