Representing the views of emerging professionals as a CIHT Emerging Professional Trustee and a CIHT Council member, this strategic transportation officer vouches for volunteering and dipping a toe into everything to enhance career prospects.
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The board of trustees agrees high-level decisions for the institution. I was brought on as the first young professional trustee because the board was seeking to diversify the voices within the board and to offer a view from a young professional member. The role involves attending quarterly meetings and discussing key strategic matters with the rest of the board.
For me, I’m 26, so as a young person, it’s not very common to be on the board of trustees of a chartered institution. It’s a unique position for me to be in, to have the exposure to that high-level decision making. That’s probably the key benefit for me.
The Council is different to the board of trustees, because being a member isn’t a decision-making role. The Council doesn’t make decisions about the governance of the organisation: it’s more to do with getting together with other council members and discussing matters arising within the industry, to shape the direction of the institution.
Being on the council is great because you get to network with people from across the organisation and you get a really well-rounded idea of the membership and what, as an organisation, needs focusing on. There are local government officers, people from the Department for Transport, consultants and we’re all discussing how we can make a positive difference towards the values of the organisation and across the industry.
For both roles, being able to feed back into the organisation is so useful. I can seek out the views of the Young Professionals Network, now the Emerging Professionals Network, and try to embed the views of the younger generation of members into the board.
Having started my career in consultancy, I’m now working at the City of London Corporation, where I work on strategic transport policy.
I’ve previously worked on a lot of active travel projects, but I’ve now segued into looking at freight strategy and how to embed climate resilience into transport policy. It’s a little bit different, but the theme of sustainability still underpins the work.
I wouldn’t do anything in my career so far any differently. I feel like I’m growing as a professional and the only reason that I’ve landed the opportunities that I have is because of the things that I’ve done previously. Just dipping your toe into a little bit of everything, I think, makes for the most well-rounded career prospects.
Seek out voluntary opportunities where you can do extracurricular things, like I’ve done with CIHT. They really allow you to network with people who have far more professional experience than you and gauge what’s going on in other areas of the transport industry. That’s really important in terms of professional development.
Olivia Reed was in conversation with Craig Thomas.
Fast-track your knowledge, boost your skills and contribute to the future growth of your company. Book your place at CIHT’s Emerging Professionals Conference on April 26.
Fast-track your knowledge, boost your skills and contribute to the future growth of your company. Book your place at CIHT’s Emerging Professionals Conference on April 26.
Join other savvy professionals just like you at CIHT. We are committed to fulfilling your professional development needs throughout your career
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