Samantha Hiller
What's your job about?
At Lendlease, we develop the best places. But more specifically, the development team I’m apart of construct and sell residential land at Springfield Rise, along with delivering a range of amenities such as parks and sporting facilities. A significant role I play is leading the design and delivery of a local park within one of our villages. Being entrusted with this responsibility has allowed me to grow immensely within myself and my role.
Aside from delivering the local park, a few other responsibilities of mine include the delivery of embellishment works to our Display Village, preparing release margins and sales documents for upcoming land releases, construction updates, tender management and competitor analysis. Every Wednesday and Friday, I am out on-site, with every other day at Kingsgate in Brisbane. My role is diverse and rewarding, and the outcomes are tangible, which is a really cool part of my job.
What's your background?
I grew up in Kingscliff NSW, which is a small coastal town just south of the Gold Coast. I studied a Bachelor of Property at Bond University and graduated in February 2019, starting with Lendlease a week prior. A phenomenal experience I had while at Bond, was completing my capstone project in the Solomon Islands. Six of us headed to Kirakira for a week, working on a conceptual masterplan for the Kirakira Provincial Primary School. We finalised the masterplan over a semester and presented it to various stakeholders.
I am confident that my abroad experience and application of theory to a real-world project is part of the reason why I landed a place within the Lendlease Graduate Program, over competition. I’ve now been in the graduate program for over a year and have experienced a rotation in Urban Regeneration and Communities.
Could someone with a different background do your job?
Certainly - a background in planning or engineering would do great in development management. However, it is necessary to be a highly organised person, as you are expected to not only manage yourself but others, competing deadlines and priorities. Some other key characteristics include resilience, confidence in communicating/presenting, and attention to detail.
What's the coolest thing about your job?
When I drive around on-site and see families moving into their dream homes, or young couples standing on lots looking for their first home or seeing kids having fun using our parks. It's those moments which are really motivating to ensure we strive for the best outcomes for our residents and leave a long-lasting positive legacy.
What are the limitations of your job?
My role is demanding and requires oversight of numerous projects and tasks at the same time, essentially juggling, ensuring I don’t drop anything. Unfortunately, mistakes do happen, things fail or don’t go to plan. It’s in those times where you need to be accountable and resilient. In all honesty, you may sometimes face some heat for errors, or people may get a little frustrated when things aren’t going smoothly. As a graduate you’re still learning and naturally, that process is clunky. It’s important to remain cool, calm and collected and always act with integrity in these situations.
3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...
- Take a deep breath and relax - enjoy the moment you’re in. Celebrate how far you have come in such a short time.
- Don’t feel so guilty about missing a few lectures here and there, if it means you are giving your mental health a much-needed break. Assignments, grades, extracurricular activities, part-time work, bills, etc. – it can all get a bit much. Just make sure you definitely catch-up on those recordings!!
- Push yourself outside of your comfort zone, for me – that would mean go to more social events and make more friends, try to join a Uni club or be a part of a committee.