I have been auditing with Global-Mark since the very beginning of my own business, which I started in June 2007 (Thanks Herve, for helping to ease me into it). My foray into working for myself started after a 20-year career of sorts in the energy industry, then as an environmental consultant for a short time and as systems manager in the waste industry. After working in a corporate environment for roughly 25 years, I found that I really didn’t want to work for an employer anymore, especially now that I had some flexibility in my working life, with my 2 children heading off to university.
My early “career” with AGL was really almost an accidental job, as I put an Ad in the newspaper as a “graduate seeking opportunities”. They were seeking a young man to take on a technical role, and in the end, they didn’t have a good reason not to take on a woman. So there I had my first “real job” after spending four years as a Snow Ski Instructor in Austria and travelling the world in the off-season.
The job of designing gas reticulation systems and planning the conversion of Sydney to natural gas was not really in my chosen area of interest. However, in the end it served me very well, as I was able to negotiate a 3 day a week deal as a permanent arrangement after my children were born. This gave me the perfect balance between earning money and spending time with the kids.
After about 12 years with AGL (and bored silly), I managed to insinuate my way into the fairly newly formed Environment Department in 1996, and this opportunity gave me the momentum to finally follow my passion into the environmental field. The moment I snagged the role, I signed up to undertake a Master of Environmental Management, which happened to coincide with my youngest child going to school.
This was one of my busiest, challenging, yet really satisfying time of my life. I really enjoyed the challenge of study, and applying my newly found skills into my job as an environmental officer, which eventually led to environmental coordinator, advisor and the Manager. I still even had time to become part of the school community, taking on the role of P&C president for a year or two at the local school. I am proud to say, that both of my kids studied environmental science / management at university, and are passionate about protecting our fragile planet as well as working in their chosen fields.
After working in the environmental role for around seven years, it was time to move onto greener pastures, and broaden my experience, as the environment field was really my passion. After a short role in consulting with a big firm (hated it!), I took on a system manager role in the NSW government owned waste company WSN, where I gained fantastic experience, which eventually led me to establishing my own business. I’ve never looked back, and now take on many and varied auditing, consulting and training jobs. I always seem to be busy, and it’s been a challenge to meet the demands of my clients, but I love it, and it gives me the flexibility to pursue my many other interests.
So, enough about my career journey – even though work takes up a large part of my life, it’s the things we work for that are really important to me. Essentially, I love the outdoor and sporting life, and try to pack in as much adventure as possible in the years we have left. Over the past 6-10 years or so, John (husband) and I have become keen cyclists, and we especially love bike touring. In recent times, we’ve cycled west to east across England, cycled the Rhine river from source to sea (1600 km) ridden from Mount Cook to Oamaru in New Zealand (320 km). We are currently planning further rides in NZ (Central Otago and west Coast Wilderness in Feb 19) and then the big one in 2020, a 2000 km trip from Lands End (southern tip of England) to John O’Groats (northern tip of Scotland).
When we’re not cycling, we love to take our dog for bushwalks (we live next to the bush), go kayaking, hiking, travelling and occasionally, skiing. Life is so short, we plan to pack in as much as we can while we’re still fit enough to do it, and I intend to keep working in a field I love to fund our adventures for as long as possible!
Julie Dickson, Client Manager
