Lora Amos-Terpstra is a Junior Professional currently working at Parsons Canada Ltd. She manages her own small-scale projects and assists project managers on large-scale projects.
Lora’s career path is best described as a natural progression towards project management. Over the past few years, she’s gained experience as a technical assistant, completing specific project tasks to becoming a Project Coordinator, assisting with all aspects of a project.
This is evident in her day-to-day responsibilities, where she is involved with:
- scheduling field work including selecting appropriate staff for the job;
- tracking the project budget, checking invoices for accuracy and preparing purchase orders for subcontractors;
- ensuring quality assurance and quality control for laboratory work including checking samples, laboratory arrangements and submissions;
- maintaining effective stakeholder relations with both staff and clients, such as discussing the project scope, budget, and safety requirements; and
- writing and editing project reports.
Lora wanted to continue her professional development in the area of project management. She was seeking a course that applied directly to her industry and the work she was currently doing. She thought the Environmental Project Management Course from the ECO Academy would be a great fit!
She enjoyed the interactive modules the most, as they allowed her to apply the concepts she was learning.
“All topics so far have been directly applicable to the type of work I do now. They are helping me solidify my understanding of what it means to manage a project in the environmental consulting industry and will help me manage more complex projects in the future,” she notes.
If you’re looking to further develop your project management skills, Lora also recommends taking accounting and technical writing courses.
“Much of project management involves these two skills, and they will help you complement your technical and scientific skillsets,” she says.
