If you were listening to By Design on Radio National this morning, you would have heard me being interviewed about community scale retrofit of homes.

A friend put me in touch with the show’s presenter, Fenella Kernebone. Fenella suggested I pop into the ABC studios to do the interview by tardis.

I thought the TARDIS comment was a geek joke until the ABC security guard at the front desk asked, ‘Are you here for the TARDIS?’

The fine print on the sign explains that the most remarkable characteristic of a TARDIS is that its interior is much larger than it appears from the outside.

I’ve now been interviewed by journalists four times (twice for newspaper, twice for radio). It’s always hard for me to predict what the end product will be.

My company gave me media training last year and I learned that I should always prepare a key message and back it up with three lines of evidence.

In most cases, if you tell the story clearly enough that the journalist can use it verbatim, then you’re doing them a favour.

I think I need more practice.

This year, I am seconded into another company. Being seconded means that my own company has ‘loaned’ me out. My original company still pays me directly and my new company pays my home company for my time.

Since I started working, I have been on three secondments. The first time I was asked to go on secondment, I was unsure. The job sounded boring. My managers were keen that I accepted the role; there was no one available to do it.

I went to my mentor for advice. She said, ‘Always accept secondments. You end up learning a lot from them.’

It’s true. Every time I leave my home company, I meet new people, get new skills, and end up being able to tell people about my unique experiences.

My first stint was for a government agency in the UK. I researched and implemented approaches to dealing with the social aspects of sustainability in road projects.

My second secondment was for a rail project in outer suburban Melbourne. I managed environmental issues on a big and fast moving construction site. This was a terrifying and effective way to learn local legislation quickly and practice how to persuade construction workers to do things that slowed them down.

My current job is to find ways to fund low carbon and efficient energy, water and waste systems in a large inner Melbourne development. This is the first time I have worked as the ‘client’, commissioning engineers to do studies for a project.

Anyway, so this has been a long introduction to what I really want to talk about. At my new company, we use laptops instead of desktop computers. Rather than clicking into a docking station, the laptop hovers above the desk like this.

The laptop screen is 15.4 inches, which is probably the smallest I would want for an everyday computer monitor. Isn’t it a strange set up? I suppose it saves the money needed for a monitor and a docking station.

I’ve been teaching final year civil and environmental engineering students at Monash University. To celebrate the end of the year, I was invited to the department dinner where I sat next to Dr Dave and talked about sustainability.

‘It’s hard,’ Dave said. ‘We all want to make money.’ Dave noticed my expresion change. ‘You do want to make money, right?’ he prompted.

‘Umm, well… I have a mortgage… as long as I can pay that, then no, I don’t need to make a heap of money,’ I ventured.

Dave looked at me intently and suddenly lit up. ‘Well! If you don’t mind about money, you could go into academia! It’s such a great job, you know. You can make a real difference though teaching. Nothing is as effective as influencing people through teaching. Especially if money isn’t that important to you.’