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Interesting Career Helen S. Prociuk During my brief stay in Canada I visited with Marussia Zayac. I have known her for many years, have watched her grow, seen her graduate from high school then from Vassar. Eventually she moved to Canada, where she graduated from the University of Toronto with a Master's Degree in Urban Planning. Marussia's choice of career is w orthy of note. W ithin the Ukrainian com m unity students tend to follow already established patterns in choosing professions — such as engineering,medicine, teaching, political science, etc. Training in less popular fields — social services, ecology, technical — somehow did not catch the atten tion of our young people. Marussia Zayac explained to me what her profession entails. Urban Planners are persons who develop comprehensive plans and programs for the growth and overall revitalization of urban communities. They try to remedy urban problems, such as deteriorat ing neighborhoods, traffic congestion, shortages of parks, or of suitable space for industrial development. To do this they must visualize future conditions — space, population growth and its needs, social problems, econom ic trends. They must study the problem, research it and talk it over with the comm unities. There is a need for theoretical prepara tion, as well as a lot of on-the-job training. Urban planners are likely to be in demand through the 1980's. I asked Marussia "W here do you work?" "M y firm is called Management and Technical Consultans. It is im possible to put one label on the kind of work we do. Most of our clients are government ministries (Provincial and Federal) and agencies for whom we conduct policy and research studies on housing issues and specific programs: transportation, labor market, organization studies, marketing and inform ation programs. The private sector usually involves management reorganization, determining markets for products and general policy and corporate planning work. If the work involves highly technical knowledge which no one w ithin our firm posesses, we'll sub-contract that portion to an expert." — And what do you do specifically? The work I have done so far, has been for govern ment clients on housing and transportation. Eventually, I'll get into management and organization work. I have been travelling a lot... You have to enjoy travelling and interviewing people for inform ation. We do minimal reading and maximum talking to get the inform ation needed for any project. So far, I've been across Canada from coast to coast on blitz trips — from one to three days in a city with interviews scheduled for the entire day. In between I spend most of my time thinking and w riting The ability to write very sim ply and concisely is Marussia Zayac — Urban Planner М аруся Заяць — плян овик будови м іс т one of the most valued attributes in the consulting field. Com m unication skills are very im portant. You have to convince you clients to follow your recommendation or you have wasted your time and your report will end up on the shelves." "Usually we work on projects that last anywhere from three weeks to six months. Peter and Derek generally direct each one, and one or two associates are assigned to a project from beginning to end." — You often mention Peter and Derek — who are they? W on't you tell me some more about the people with whom you work? "Peter and Derek are the partners. The rest of the staff are prim arily generalists. They never hire a specialist since everyone has to adapt to a very broad scope of work assignments. Specialists can be sub contracted for specific things we need, when needed. It actually works out well. We have hired political scientists, M. B. A's, geographers, whose main qualification is the ability to think and be flexible. Everyone has to be avail able fo r bouncing ideas or for helping to solve a particular problem. Unlike the case in larger firms, we work closely with the partners and they are always available when you need them ." It sounds great. ""I would not like to generalize from my experience and say that the working envirnoment is as congenial in most consulting firms... We are a small company. My work environment is wonderful. I never thought I would be so lucky! We all vary in experience and help one another. In such a small office it is im portant that we all get along wegether. No one is hired before we all interview that person to make sure we're compatible. I would say we are all friends as well as working as sociates and that makes the whole situation that much 22 НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ, ТРАВЕНЬ 1975 Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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