Sina Cotter Tait introduced herself at this lunch and learn and shared some lessons she has learnt in her career so far. Sina has been on the committee for the Land Development Engineering Special Interest Group that sits within Āpōpō for 9 years and has enjoyed representing this industry over that time. She also co-authored the first Land Development Engineering Digital Badge, LD101 and sat on the National Transition Unit’s Land Development Working Group for Water Services Reform.
Some of Sina’s first projects were with waterways in Christchurch where she learnt that so many great leaders reside in local councils. She was also in Christchurch for the earthquakes, and was involved with a range of projects rebuilding that city. This was when she realised she wanted to make a difference – to work on projects which had purpose and benefited the community rather than profit driven entities. She now works for herself and chooses who she works for based on their values.
Advice to my younger self? She probably won’t have listened! but her two suggestions were:
- It’s not a race: be prepared to quit, change directions, try new things as a career doesn’t need to be a race to the top and you can be better at what you do with a rounded background
- Don’t take all the advice you are given [!]: Sina as a young project manager was told to “bang the table!” but this is not her style so be authentic to yourself and find your own way of doing things. This “bang the table” approach would certainly not have worked in her second career in the board room.
A huge thanks to Sina for her time and wisdom in this New Professionals Lunch and Learn webinar.
You can view the recording of the session here, but due to a streaming issue only audio content is available for most of the webinar:
What is Lunch and Learn?
Lunch and Learn is our monthly online web series, aimed at infrastructure asset management professionals who new to the industry. Each session will have a different speaker sharing insight on their time in the industry.
These free sessions allow new professionals to korero, learn, and connect with others who are new to working in infrastructure asset management. They are a forum to ask questions and learn best practice from a line-up of experienced experts.
Who can join?
Lunch and Learn is open to anyone who has less than five years of professional work experience – including Āpōpō members and non-members. Feel free to bring your lunch to this online session, keep in mind we will ask that you have your camera on for part of the session, particularly for the introductions and Q&A at the end (intros and Q&A will be cut from the recording before it is posted).
Here are the next two we have planned, but keep an eye on our events page for future sessions.
