A moment to reflect

I was talking at a Commonwealth Games event tonight for the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA). It all went pretty well and it was great to have the opportunity to talk about some of the work we've been doing. Also thanks to Mr Gajin Aboot for taking the snap!

It got me thinking though. Three years ago I was slaving away in the private sector, doing good work hopefully but not really getting too many opportunities to progress, attend events and, dare I say it, 'network'. I was also pretty worried about the security of my job which doesn't help!

In contrast, during my time at the Cooncil, I've had a lot of freedom to develop exciting and valuable projects, attend events and meetings, talk at events and, yes, 'network'. A lot of this comes down to trust and having a very good boss who exerts just the right amount of management with a healthy dose of support. I'm pretty sure I've been working a bit above my pay-grade but given the returns in terms of 'career development', I think this is a fair trade-off.

I'm not sure if all of the above applies to Mr Gajin Aboot but he seems to have done pretty well off the back of his Cooncil job too ;-)

Exciting week again next week. Lecturing at Strathclyde, presenting our greener legacy projects to Scottish Government head honchos and NGOs and then interviewing artists for our project in Camlachie. There's definitely frustrating aspects to working at the Cooncil but it does have a lot of positives.