What a Week!

I started on my new job on Monday and was slowly introduced to the workings of my section. I was really shy (being my first week and all) and preferred to sit by myself eating lunch and reading planning materials (some of which were interesting while others were abit dry). =P

A colleague and I went with our manager on a site visit on Wednesday to a local area and were educated on a planner's perspective when viewing an area. We were also told what was good or poor planning and had to make observations during the trip which we were quizzed later on. Fortunately, not a serious quiz but a casual conversation about what we've noticed and our manager peeling away more layers so we understand where we should look and how neighbourhoods could be set up so the best amenities could be achieved for the community.

Then yesterday, I was tasked to research on some data for a presentation my manager was making next week. I felt abit thrown out of my depth cos I didn't know certain trends but I did my best with an outline given to me on some current issues. My task was to find evidence on the issues, such as population growth and trends, the aging population, the exit rate of farmers from their farms.

I wanted to work fast and hard so I can hand in the work early but it got abit frustrating sometimes because I couldn't find the data I needed, such as where people in a certain region were moving to cos it's data that is not easily tracked. Data on no. of people moving out or moving into a particular district was easier but to track where they were going to wasn't easy unless it was in general categories of Melbourne, interstate or other parts of Victoria.

I made several revisions after recommendations by my supervisor and another planning colleague and got to work again. I'm not done yet and felt really tired from staring at data. Sometimes graphs and trends weren't available so I had to obtain the raw data and convert them into bar graphs (which I find the easiest to read data) and also theoretical explanations to support the graphs.

I'll be glad when this is done... =O)