Job Satisfaction at Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA)

As a graduate officer in Forest Fire Management I have been working across many different aspects of the planning and delivery of fuel management programs. The variety of work means no two days are the same so it's always interesting!

In this grad program, I'm lucky to be able to ask to work on projects that I want to work on, whether they have direct relevance to my usual role or not. Often the projects work towards helping the environment, or communities interact safer/better with the environment, which I find really satisfying. I like the mixture of office and field roles, sometimes you can work on five-year-long projects, and sometimes your tasks can be down to three minute daily tasks. The variability means you can really find something that suits you.

I feel that my work is interesting and important to issues that I care about. However, the incredibly slow pace of the public service and the depth and confusion of our poor record-keeping has made me bored and frustrated with too high a regularity.

Most of the time my work is interesting and challenges me

I complete task for my team members such as PowerPoint, tables, run sheets for consultation and timelines as well as participating in discussions on our work.

I am satisfied with my role at the moment because it largely involves being included by my team manager, and at least some of my tasks are allocated to me with experience and learning in mind. My day-to-day can also vary quite a bit, and I like that too. It largely revolves around microsoft office, and has broadly involved a combination of project, stakeholder, and contract management (as my team is almost exclusively working on a big project).

Day-to-day tasks are quite mundane and not very exciting.

Project tasks are stimulating and am empowered to provide opinions and steer direction. Not a whole lot of ad-hoc tasks being allocated.

I was supported to very quickly find projects within my work group that I am passionate about and I feel like I have enough influence to meaningfully implement these projects to make change.

I currently work in an administrative role supporting the director within Forest, Fire and Regions Group. I attend committee meetings, develop procurement applications, write/collate monthly and quarterly business reports, network with others in my wider office, and contribute to my grad program activities.

Assessing amendments and responding to minister enquiries

I work as a strategic planner in developing planning policy. The work is wide-ranging, but involves lots of communication, consultation with subject matter experts, research, socialisation of policy and relationship management. As a graduate, I don't have many responsibilities that I am held accountable for, as my work tends to be overseen by more senior colleagues, however the work that I do is meaningful and keeps me busy. Deadlines sometimes come out of nowhere and can be tight, however my workload is well managed and my team is available to pick up the slack for one another.

A wide variety of work keeps the role interesting, but managing my time is really important. Sometimes the work that I think is important is not what higher ups want to progress and you can feel pulled in different directions sometimes. At a district level work can be very reactionary which can feel frustrating. Being able to have an emergency role in addition to business as usual, makes work even more rewarding and variable. However, this also contributes to the importance of time management.

My current rotation is with an environmental assessment team within a regulator. Day-to-day this is mostly independent desk work. Occasionally site visits are required and travel across the state is required.

At the moment my role is mostly bureaucratic, which is a bit unsatisfying given I am not using my science background. However the overall project I'm contributing to is science-based, and my manager is supportive in helping me find ways to do more science.