Tall Stories: Gracen Luka & Jake Nash

In this episode of Tall Stories Hannah Nansett, Projects Lead at the Institute of Building speaks with Gracen Luka and Jake Nash.

Jake is the Senior Associate and Digital Support Lead at Warren and Mahoney. He has grown his career with the firm over the past 14 years and is now a leader and mentor to new recruits.

Gracen was the winner of the Emerging Leader award at the 2023 NZ Building People Awards and was also given a special commendation from the Supreme Award judges. After several years growing her career in Aotearoa she is currently c working as a Development Manager at Stockland in Sydney.

They discuss a range of topics including:

• Making the leap from study to work – learning to put yourself out there and sell yourself, showing resilience and perseverance when times are tough and learning from those with more experience.
• The importance of mentors in your career and how to shift from being a mentee to a mentor.
• The reward of completing projects and passing on knowledge.
• Navigating changes in technology – try not to get too overwhelmed – you can’t do it all – if possible split things up among a group. The importance of only biting of what you can chew – setting realistic expectations for adopting new tech.
• Work life balance – it’s the managers who need to put the limits in place and tell people to go home!