Who got that job?

Were you one of the 106 people who applied for this job and wondered who got it?

Job title: Change manager.

For: Auckland City.

For most of us, the prospect of change at work causes a few nerves.

But for Vicki O'Connor change is renewal and something to relish. That's why she's just taken on the job of Auckland City's first change manager.

She describes her job as about "the big-picture stuff, where we are going and how we are going to get there. It's taking what I like to call a helicopter view of things."

Christchurch-born O'Connor, who has a masters degree in human geography, works alongside senior managers across the council, helping them with the frameworks to manage change so it causes as little disruption as possible.

"It's mitigating risk, ensuring that when change is about to happen people understand why change is happening, what it might mean and that they've received adequate training," says O'Connor.

The "partnering" aspect of the job - working across the council with staff - also appealed, "taking out to the organisation these practices and embedding them. Creating a culture of change is part of what we do."

O'Connor knows all about the impact of change. She was human resources manager for Carter Holt Harvey's forestry group, the first to be spun off in its rejig.

The attraction of the Auckland City job was the opportunity "to work at a more strategic level in a fairly high-profile organisation, to build on the change management experience I'd picked up at Carter Holt."