In this Tall Stories podcast, the Institute’s Southern Region Committee (Otago branch) member and Associate at RCP, Jared Glue speaks with Mackenzie Barnett and Skye Duncan. 

Mackenzie is in the early stages of her career in the construction industry, she studied as a Quantity Surveyor and is now learning the ropes as an Assistant Project Manager at RCP in Dunedin. 

Skye had her start in Architecture before completing her Master’s at Columbia University, working in New York in City Government and then starting up the Global Designing Cities Initiative (GDCI). After being based in the US for a number of years she now works remotely from her hometown of Dunedin. 

Their conversation spans multiple topics including:

• More about the GDCI, how it came to be and what it does to transform urban spaces to improve people’s lives
• The challenges of working at a global scale including navigating world politics and cultural differences
• Starting out and moving past your nerves – making the most of experienced people around you. You’ll never know everything.
• How to help people accept and embrace change – people can’t imagine what they don’t know
• The need for more visibility about construction career paths in school – particularly for girls and young women. 
• Plus, a whole lot of passion for the industry and being part of positive change. 

Listen for the full conversation. 

When recording Tall Stories, we travel around the motu to hear from our people across Aotearoa – this episode was recorded in Ōtepoti | Dunedin at RCP’s offices.