Question: Would you say that you ever need any physical geography knowledge (eg:info about landscapes) for your job. I understand that it is quite people based but what other skills and knowledge do you need?

Lizzy Miller answered on 3 Mar 2026:

Yes, a bit of physical geography is helpful in my job, because it gives me a basic understanding of the technical side of things like flooding, rivers and how the land affects water movement or other aspects depending on the project or piece of work I’m working on. I don’t need to be an expert, but having that foundation helps me ask better questions and understand what colleagues are explaining.

My background is mainly physical and human geography with a slight lean to human, and that fits my role really well now because my job is mostly about people: how we communicate change, how teams work together, and how we help people adapt to new ways of working.

When I studied, I chose a mix of human and physical geography because I didn’t know what job I’d want when I was older, and it kept my skills broad. It means I can “dip into” either side depending on what a project needs.

Other skills I use a lot in change management are:
– communication (explaining things clearly)
– listening and empathy (understanding worries and barriers)
– planning and organising
– problem-solving
– teamwork and influencing (bringing people with you)
– learning quickly (you often learn the detail of a role on the job)

Before this role I am in now, I also trained people who supported incident response, so I learned lots of the specifics through the job. Having some physical geography knowledge helped me build that understanding faster