The Blueprint x Jennifer Miles

Written by Emily Dias - AUPSS Exec

When I sat down with Jennifer Miles, I expected to learn about project management in healthcare and social infrastructure. I certainly did, but I left with a broader perspective on building a career in the property industry. We spoke about finding your niche, understanding people, and how continually challenging yourself can shape where your career takes you.

After almost eight years at RCP, Jennifer progressed to Associate Director and equity shareholder, developing a strong specialisation in complex healthcare and social infrastructure projects. She has since taken the next step in her career by establishing her own consultancy, Jennifer Miles & Co.

Throughout our conversation, one message consistently surfaced: the most rewarding careers aren't built by following a perfectly planned path, they're built by staying curious and continuously looking for ways to grow.

Early in her career, Jennifer realised she was drawn to complexity. Through experience across commercial buildings, aged care and laboratories, she found herself particularly drawn to healthcare and social infrastructure. The projects brought together technical challenges with a wide range of people and perspectives, and there was always something new to understand.

Over time, Jennifer’s focus shifted towards the early stages of major projects, helping clients understand the problem they are trying to solve, build a strong investment case and translating strategic ambition into projects that can realistically be funded and delivered.

Listening to Jennifer describe this work, I began to see that project management is about more than coordinating programmes and budgets. It is about bringing people with different priorities together and finding a way forward.

That made me curious about how she navigated such complex projects and built trust across so many different roles. Her answer was simple, but became one of the biggest takeaways from our conversation:

“Technical ability gets you in the room. Communication is what makes you stay.”

Jennifer explained that technical competence is the minimum expectation. What differentiates great project managers is their ability to communicate with a wide variety of personalities, build trust and adapt their approach depending on who they're speaking to.

One conversation might be with an engineer who wants every technical detail, while the next is with a busy surgeon who simply wants the key information. Learning to recognise those differences, rather than communicating with everyone the same way, has become one of the biggest lessons of her career.

She admitted this wasn't something she understood early on. Like many people, she assumed good communication simply meant communicating well. Over time, she realised it was just as much about understanding the person in front of you and knowing when to adapt your approach.

New Dunedin Hospital – Outpatients Department

Another lesson that stayed with me was Jennifer's perspective on leadership and progression.

One of her mentors challenged her to think about the difference between leadership and ownership. Jennifer described it through an analogy that I haven't stopped thinking about since.

Imagine everyone sitting around a dinner table.

Some people are there because they work hard and are part of the team. Others have a seat because they've brought something to the table.

That contribution doesn't necessarily mean bringing in new business. It could be your skills, sharing knowledge, training others or finding a way to add value to the team. Jennifer spoke about doing exactly this throughout her own career, often turning what she had learned into something she could teach others.

“If you want a seat at the table,” Jennifer explained, “you need to bring something with you.”

For someone at the beginning of their career, there is something particularly powerful in that idea. You don't have to wait until you've accumulated years of experience before you can contribute. You can start by becoming exceptionally good at something, sharing what you know, taking on challenges others might avoid, or finding small ways to make the team better.

It was a simple illustration, but one that changed the way I thought about adding value within a business. Instead of asking what opportunities are available to you, perhaps the better question is: what can I bring to the table?

Jennifer’s own career seemed to be shaped by that mindset. She repeatedly put her hand up for projects that challenged her, but also for opportunities beyond her day-to-day role, including working on bids and helping win new work. These experiences taught her how to understand what a client really needs, bring together the right team and develop a clear strategy for delivery. She came to realise that winning work and delivering it well are closely connected, because a good bid requires you to start thinking through the project before you have even won it.

Over time, that willingness to contribute and stretch herself gave her more than experience. It built her credibility, expanded her responsibilities and ultimately helped earn her a place at the table.

“I was always putting my hand up.”

Those opportunities often became the experiences that accelerated her career. She also encouraged students to seek out more than one mentor. Rather than looking for a single person with all the answers, Jennifer believes different mentors play different roles. One might encourage you when you're lacking confidence, another might challenge your thinking, while someone else teaches you the unwritten rules of navigating a workplace. Looking back, she credits much of her growth to the people who were willing to have honest conversations with her, even when the advice wasn't what she wanted to hear.

Northbrook Wynyard Quarter – Luxury Aged Care and Villard Luxury Apartments

As our discussion came to an end, we spoke about students preparing to enter the property industry. Jennifer acknowledged that it's easy to feel pressure to have your career mapped out before you've even graduated. Her own experience has taught her the opposite.

Careers evolve. Interests change. New opportunities appear that you could never have predicted.

Perhaps the clearest example is Jennifer’s own next step. After almost eight years at RCP and reaching Associate Director and equity shareholder level, she chose not to become comfortable. Instead, she established Jennifer Miles & Co, taking on a new challenge and continuing to learn in a different capacity.

Rather than worrying about having every step planned, Jennifer encouraged students to focus on becoming technically capable, staying curious and never becoming too comfortable. The more you continue learning, the more opportunities naturally begin to open.

Walking away from our conversation, I realised Jennifer hadn't really changed the way I thought about project management; she had changed the way I thought about building a career. University gives us the technical foundation, but Jennifer's experience was a timely reminder that where we go from there is shaped just as much by curiosity, communication and a willingness to keep putting our hand up for the next challenge.