What else could I do with these skills? Career change for environmental planner. .

[Reluctantadult]

I think i might have to face up to changing career in a couple of years. I love what I do, I'm qualified, experienced, good at it. But I'm stuck progression wise as its completely stagnant and the next roles up are difficult/impossible to get and scary. Salary wise I'm in low £30's with no route up. +10yrs like this. And no end in sight.

I work for a non-departmental public body in the planning sector by which I mean development, house building etc, both applications and policy. I give the organisations advice.

What else I could do though?

I don't want to go into consultancy as that would mean working for house builders and developers, which feels a bit like the dark side. I'm also such a generalist I'm not sure they have a job for me. They're usually more specific eg an ecologist. A flood modeller.

Transferable skills wise :

I can digest big technical reports on different related topics and form an opinion balancing evidence.

I can write that into a good letter.

I sometimes have to present evidence / the opinion I've formulated / and represent my organisation to an examiner /inspector, in front of an audience. And be questioned.

I am senior in my team so direct the team, priorities what we do. Balance people's work loads. This has involved coming up with and driving new ways of working.

I advise colleagues and lead on hard decisions. QA their work. Give them technical and tactical advice.

I juggle workload. A lot. And well.

I work with lots of partners, building relationships, chairing groups, participating. Some of these are not always easy.

Hi @ResilienceWanker !@ResilienceWanker ! I have wondered about EIA before and the planning inspectorate. Good shouts. It would be a real wrench to leave NE, I've already begun talking myself out of it since I posted this morning... But I honestly think they'd have me doing the same thing in 3yrs, 5yrs, it'll slip to 10... I'm 16 years in already so it's easily done! I'm frustrated by a couple of big things in working on being completely mired down. And I would like to do something other than planning. If you know me in real life all this will be well outing. But I'm not bothered, if you work it out, message me on teams :)

<waves>

Also NE, also considering a move to the EA, and could have written this bit of your post: But some newer people in the team have the bits of the job I would prefer and I've been left with the hardest bits no one wanted ha

I’m the level down from you, by the sounds of it, but have recently been put on a project that took me away from the stuff I enjoyed and into a poorly managed, very stressful scenario that has resulted in me being a glorified administrator while newer colleagues are taking on interesting partnership opportunities and my skills are atrophying. I looked at the equivalent role in the EA and found I was really struggling to find good examples for the competency questions, but when I read the job description I felt I could do the vast majority of it quite happily, and well. I have in-demand skills. But I can’t give good, meaty examples from my current role, only from previous roles.

I’m keen to take a step up to a senior position in the next year or two but I am going to struggle to pass the panel with what I’m doing at the moment. I think I need a chat with someone who interviews at that level to see the calibre of response they’re looking for. I just feel a bit trapped at the moment, like I’m being overlooked for other things because they’ve pigeonholed me in this particular project, which I didn’t really want to be involved in in the first place!

I need to think about what I want to do, and take charge of my next move. Definitely not line management - I much prefer being in a practical delivery role.

Anyway, sorry - not much help - but what I see of the EA seems to be much more organised and strategic than NE.

Haha! No, being worn out and slightly pissed off at working practices isn't especially outing 🤣 And I totally understand the wrench at leaving. I was discussing with colleagues last week how easy it is to become institutionalised. If there was a bit more recognition of the skills you have, and your importance to the team linked to pay it would probably feel a bit more do-able!!

It's annoying others in your team have got all the fun stuff. Can you recover some of that? It must be disheartening to have ONLY all the hard stuff noone else wants. I would suggest looking for a sideways move to a different area in NE, but that sounds like it isn't going to work. Can you have a fairly frank discussion with your team leader though? Maybe if you have one area/ project that really inspires you it may be enough to get you back in the swing of things. Or try to get some training in something that builds on the parts you enjoy doing (with the idea of moving more into that area eventually?) Maybe on the building capability, or something like connecting people with nature side if you enjoy teaching? I know you're defined as business critical, but if the alternative is "losing you" entirely it would be a bit bonkers to block it not that that is beyond the realms of possibility

To be honest, it sounds like your skills would be really valuable to a consultant, if you do want a move, but if your heart isn't In it it may not be the best idea (heaps of stress, deadlines, timesheets and maybe not so much warm fuzzy feeling of working in the interests of the environment...). Happy to discuss if you want to DM.

@dubyalass if you interview with the EA it won't matter where your examples come from.

In terms of getting insights to the interview process does the NE have Inclusive Recruitment Volunteers? In order to reduce unconscious bias and increase diversity at every stage of the recruitment process the EA do, and you can volunteer to sift applications, write interview questions or sit on interview panels and this is not restricted to any grade. I have found it to be a fantastic way to learn about the EA and the interview process, how to answer the questions and what to avoid.

Super, thanks @Singleandproud. I signed up for interview training (as in, to be on the panel) but things have been so busy that I haven't been able to respond to any calls for interviewers. That will be changing in the next few weeks though.