Emei-lee Kemp

What's your job about?

HCC delivers core services and facilities to the city and its residents, ranging from roads, water, rubbish collection, parks, etc as well as looking after the wellbeing of Hamiltonians. I am a part of the Infrastructure Operations department. As part of my graduate programme, I am on a rotation where I get placed in different teams in the Infrastructure Operations department. To begin my experience I have been a part of the Asset Strategy team and the City Waters team in Compliance.

My graduate programme is tailored specifically to me and my interests/background. Right now I am working on a couple of projects with the Asset Strategy team which involve creating a criticality framework for the critical assets in council, and the other project is doing the seismic performance review. For my city waters team, I go out in the field and do stormwater visual inspections and recreational river sampling. I also am involved in the stormwater masterplan review. As well all these tasks, I undertake digital badges online to improve my skillset in asset management and I am also doing a course to become a warranted officer. Most days I attend team meetings online or in-person or join meetings where information is being shared that I am interested in or will benefit me in the future. 

What's your background?

I am born and raised in Christchurch! I am half Kiwi and half Thai, therefore I have done a lot of travelling in Asia (especially Thailand). All my education was completed in Christchurch including my time at the University of Canterbury. I worked in customer service at Harvey Norman for 5 years to earn money alongside my studies! I never intended on doing a bachelor of science as I was always interested in business, however, when I got to uni I quickly realised I didn’t enjoy business and switched to a science degree (I had no prior knowledge of science as I never took it in high school). My partner plays rugby for the Chiefs in Hamilton so I was always intending to move here once I graduated.. towards the end of my studies in 2021 I began looking for jobs up in Hamilton and happened to come across this incredible opportunity working at HCC, I applied, gave my all in my interviews and now I’ve been working here for three months! Moving to Hamilton was daunting as I had only ever lived in Christchurch, but it’s been the best decision I’ve made to date as I feel like I’m thriving in a new city and it’s been so refreshing to start from scratch.

What do you think are the most important characteristics to be successful at HCC and in your role?

I think there are many important characteristics to be successful at HCC, but the most important would be that you work well in a team. HCC is an extremely inclusive and team-focused organisation. If you don’t like working with others, this isn’t the place for you. Another important characteristic is to be open-minded, passionate, trusting and responsible. You will often find yourself working on random projects that have nothing to do with you or with all kinds of people so it is crucial to have an open mind about your work and environment. Everyone who works at HCC is passionate about their field of work and in order to fully immerse yourself in this experience I think you must be passionate and enjoy your work too! Lastly, the company provides a lot of flexibility with work and with that comes the trust that we will be responsible enough to work hard and manage our workload given the flexibility.

What's the coolest thing about your job?

What I love most about my job is that I get to spend half the time in the office and then break up my week with half the time out in the field. I enjoy getting to work in the office as we have a great work environment and going for a hot cuppa with my peers is always the highlight of my day. On the other hand, It’s nice to take a break from the screens and get out amongst the city for the day doing my sampling and monitoring tasks. 

What are the limitations of your job?

The limitations of this job are that working for the council now means you are a representative and our reputation is important, therefore, in my opinion, you must watch how you act and make sure you don’t do anything that gives the council a bad name. This transfers into our work too, because we are working for the community we must assure our work is always top form, there’s no slacking!

3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...

• Just because you studied a specific subject, that does not mean your career is limited to that, you are free to explore other options and you can even pick up another degree if you wanted! Working at council I’ve met people working in areas they never studied or many that didn’t even attend university, there were passionate about their field and that was all it took!
• Make the most of the opportunities at university. I joined social sports, and social clubs was president of the social/academic club for my subject, attended social events, industry nights, etc. All these activities may seem pointless, however, they help build experience and character and when it comes interview time it may give you more to speak about and make you stand out from the other applicants
• Build connections. Connections whether it be classmates, teachers, or future employers you meet at industry nights, are all important! Unfortunately in this world, a lot of the time it’s who you know not what you know. So build those connections you never know when they might come in handy!