MEET 31-year-old Timothy Austin, called ‘Tim’ for short, who has been the Public Relations Officer at Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) for the past ten years or so. In fact, this was his first job following his university education. Austin was born and raised in the city, at Campbellville, and appreciates this because as he explained, he prefers to be where everything is, in terms of accessibility to services and the like.

He shared his primary school years between St. Agnes Primary and Mae’s Under 12 before securing a place at St. Stanislaus College. He then went to the University of Guyana where he majored in media and communications.
In an interview with the Chronicle a few days ago, he revealed that he was then fortunate enough to obtain an internship at GWI through one of his lecturers.
“It worked out well. I started off with no pay, nothing; just learning on the job. There was no public relations person at the time,” he explained.
In about a year’s time, Austin gained permanent employment with the company because his performance was noted and appreciated. This was more than 10 years ago. However, he took a break in between and worked for relatively short periods with Clico and Alex Graham’s PR Firm.
Growing up, Austin entertained the thought of becoming a film director and this got him into thinking about getting into media and communications, dealing with the public, being out and interacting.
In his teen years, he wrote a small novel and is still hoping to get it published at some point in his life. “It’s a children’s book that has a Christmas theme to it. My major goal is to become a published author at some point. I love writing. I do movie reviews and the like for my blog. Writing is like my passion. One of my dreams is still to have a novel published,” he disclosed.

Community Outreaches
Austin particularly enjoys his job at GWI when it involves engaging in community outreach programmes and communicating with people. “Especially the older ones; you would be surprised to see how much people want a listening ear. It allows me to hear what’s going on. You think everything is wonderful with people until you actually listen to some of their stories. The community interaction is the best part,” he revealed.

For this reason, social work has always been something that Austin has wanted to get into. “I really enjoy interacting with people and just listening to their issues. Sometimes people just want someone to listen to. They can come to you with a customer service issue and you end up hearing about their kids migrating or something like that,” he said.
On the opposite side, though, Austin can be quite introverted. “Rather than clubbing or going to see some artiste at the stadium, I prefer a quiet dinner somewhere or the theatre. I’m obsessed with movies. That’s a conflict I have with my friends because they are more into going clubbing, etc and I never get into that scene. I tried it before and I was completely bored.”
Among other quotes, Austin particularly appreciates the one: “Be more concerned about your character rather than your reputation.” He explained that one’s reputation has more to do with what people say about him. You have no control over your reputation but your character. I mean people can say whatever they want about you but at the end of the day your character needs to be preserved above everything else.”
Austin’s parents are Ronald and Elizabeth who both served Guyana well during their years of employment. They both have retired. Mr. Austin served with the Foreign Service for over 30 years and was Ambassador to China in the 1990s. Mrs. Austin worked as the Deputy Permanent Secretary for more than 30 years with the Public Works Ministry.
Written By Telesha Ramnarine