Case studies : Waste management officer: Sarah Oliver

Sarah is a waste services officer for East Lothian Council. She has a BSc in Waste Management and Pollution Control from the University of Northampton. After graduating, she found her degree was instrumental in getting a job in the industry.

Because my degree was so practical and focused on an actual industry I was offered a number of jobs after gaining my degree so I was lucky that I had a huge choice of areas I could have gone into.

I chose to take a role as a waste minimisation officer with Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council. I worked there for 14 months and was really enjoying the job. My partner was then offered a position on a graduate fast track programme in Scotland. I was quite fortunate that East Lothian Council was advertising the role of waste services officer just at the time I needed a job in that location.

Having a formal qualification in waste management was an essential criterion for the job and the fact that I had gained experience of working at a local authority made me an ideal candidate for that position.

My subject of study was completely relevant - my final year dissertation had been on household waste minimisation, which was how I secured my first job working in the public sector.

One of the best aspects of having my degree was not having to learn about waste management while doing my job so I was free to get involved in big projects straight away and was able to concentrate on learning how the council functions on a wider scale.

My role has developed to include a more corporate aspect so I have taken on responsibility for business planning and I am a member on a number of different working groups that look at council-wide services and operations. I have responsibility for hiring staff and have employed around 15 people. I am also the lead officer of our long-term residual waste treatment project.

I love the variety of the role and the fact that you are able to create your own projects, within reason I can pretty much choose to work on what I want and choose how I want to do it, as long as this is contributing to the services overall objectives and not interfering with our ability to carry out the key aspects of our service.

One of the most challenging aspects of the work is a lack of clear guidance nationally over the waste strategy. Every time we start to move in one direction the goal posts are moved and we have to go back and revaluate our approach to providing the best value services we can while meeting our targets.

Trying to delivery more services at a higher standard with less money is the biggest challenge we will be facing over the next few years.

In terms of getting into the industry, local authority jobs will all be advertised using the one job portal so register for email alerts so you know what is on offer. Another good tip (and where most of the other jobs offers I received came from) is to register your CV with a specialist recruitment agency - they will contact companies on your behalf and you may find that companies will create a position for you.