Posted By Funlola Aboderin I am an MSc student in Environment Health and safety and due to commence my 8week placement. I have 2 offers; (1) from the City council environmental department Reviewing existing internal waste management facilities, Compiling data on internal waste arisings from council services, Reviewing legislative requirements for corporate waste, Developing waste management policy and actions, Exploring expansion of existing ISO9002 systems into ISO14001, Developing business cases for various environmental management initiatives (2) the EHS dept of a private multinational. To review current philosophy against the Packaging Waste Regs. Update the packaging assumptions/data within the calculations to verify they reflect the actual amounts of packaging being received. Create a monthly or quarterly reporting system to capture all the relevant data in a timely manner and to provide monthly commentary on anomalies. Career wise, Which direction would be more beneficial as this is my first work experience in the industry? I am open to work anywhere, I want to make the best of this opportunity. Please advise. FA

Posted By Bob Thompson CMIOSH I work for a council GO PRIVATE.

Posted By Mark Darmody I have worked for a Council go private

Posted By David Bruce Have done both and would recommend you go private. You'll have better scope for training, career development, pay rises. In addition the red tape and stagnant nature of council projects can be very frustrating. I would recommend a council job to someone who is a bit older and is looking for less stress and flex time. Apologies for the sweeping statement to those council workers that are highly talented, motivated and do get things done)

Posted By bob safe Bob has worked in both public and private sectors and can say the following: 1. Don't be hasty in rejecting local government, i spent a lot of happy years in local authority learning from a lot of great people. 2. The money isn't necessarily worse, i was paid an awful lot more in public sector than private, i've had no career development through my employer in private sector, the council paid for two qualifications. The job's what you make it, you just learn to cope better with the empire builders that try to block your way.