blog: Working as an Associate at ITP
Monday 24th June 2019
ITP is now 21 years old, and I have been working here for over 14 of those years, starting as a graduate and working my way up to Associate and the Nottingham Office Manager. There were only 8 people here when I started, and we are now up to over 40, but the attitude and ethos of the company has remained unchanged. I have been fortunate enough to grow my career as I wanted, working across multiple sectors, including international work which has involved working in five continents.
6 of the 8 people from when I started at ITP in 2005 are still here (including me)!
I personally think the sweet spot of working at ITP are the Principal & Associate grades. At this level you can really get stuck in with a project, but combine this with a management role that lets you understand and guide the process. We have recently completed a project in Turkey, for the World Bank, for which I was the Project Manager, that demonstrates how varied and interesting working at this grade can be. The project involved working with two Municipalities in Turkey, looking at their Transport Masterplans, and comparing them to the EU Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) approach, providing guidance on how they may wish to adjust their process going forward.
My role involved being the main contact with the client and managing the three work streams, but I also got to do a lot of detailed work on accessibility and mapping (two of my main passions at work) and had the support of the Project Director (thanks Colin) as and when needed. I found it very gratifying to oversee the project, delivering the work in the country to the local client as well as the World Bank, and because we had been working closely with them both throughout the process, seeing the benefit of the work.
Outside of projects I am also heavily involved in skill development. Yes, we get a lot of interesting projects to work on, but the people are what really make ITP, and helping everyone (from graduates up to the directors) have a stronger understanding or greater ability in the skills which we rely on as planners (such as GIS or modelling) is something I enjoy. As the lead designer in the company (a title I have given myself), I recently ran an internal training course on Adobe Illustrator, and get to work across almost all the projects we have in an advisory role on visual quality of outputs.
It’s no coincidence that this blog is being written and published at a time when we are trying to recruit at my level, and reading some of the job descriptions it could look a bit like they are trying to replace me! But ITP is growing, and if we can have more people with the same passions as I have, that I can work alongside anywhere from Portsmouth to Port Moresby, I am looking forward to it. And if they happen to enjoy climbing, cycling, good coffee, and generally just saying yes when people don’t expect them to, then all the better for me!
If you like the sound of working at ITP, there are currently 5 job vacancies at Principal Consultant / Associate level for candidates with 8+ years' experience. To find out more about the job roles and their requirements, click here.