Being born in Dunedin, I was keen to study in my hometown; Otago has a great reputation and is a highly regarded University.
I'm passionate about the Environment and knew I wanted to work in this field. I attended one of the University Open Days and that's where I found out about Environmental Management : it's designed to give you flexibility to study topics you enjoy while learning valuable skills to apply within a work environment. The range of courses offered is interesting and helps to give an understanding of how the environment, business, economics and society interact.
I had a predominant focus on physical geography, in particular freshwater systems and geology. I completed a minor in Applied Geology and was able to cross credit some of these papers. I also completed an Honours degree, my topic being focused on soil moisture.
All of this was very applicable to what I do now. I'm currently employed by BP Australia Pty Ltd as an Environmental Project Manager where my role requires me to manage BP's environmental liabilities and liability prevention. I oversee mainly BP's retail sites in Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia. My role requires me to engage Environmental consultants to undertake various environmental assessments or remediation projects – a lot of the skills to both undertake the assessment/remediation and project management are learnt in the fundamentals of Environmental Management.
If you're considering Environmental Management, I recommend you try out a broad range of papers in your first year or two to see what aspects of the environment you enjoy. The environmental field is broad with a variety of jobs once you finish your degree, perhaps have a think after your first couple of years of study about what type of job you would like, and then focus in on these papers.