Favorite Parts of Being an Environmental Planner at SWCA Environmental Consultants

My favorite thing about my current role is how diverse the work I get to participate in is. It actually reminds me a little bit of being in the quarter system when I was doing my undergraduate. There are a lot of different classes you're taking, but they're over short time periods, and I find that that keeps me really engaged in what I'm working on.

In my year and a half at SWCA, I've gotten to work on renewables projects, solar farms, mining, and local restoration work. There's just always something new that people are asking for help on. My time's been really varied, and that also means I get to work with a lot of different project teams and specifically project managers.

I found that working with different project managers is really valuable because they all have a different approach to how they're going to execute a project, and you're able to pick up new skills from each of them. As I've started taking on more assistant project management responsibilities, I'm able to recall the approaches that some of the other project managers I've worked with have instilled upon me.

Beyond just my role, I really enjoy the people that I work with and I really appreciate how supportive and flexible SWCA is. We're a really remote-heavy company, but there's also a lot of local support that we can lean on when needed. If I ever feel like what I'm working on is getting stale, and I ask my supervisor or mentor or other senior staff for new opportunities, they'll help me find it.