Career journeys

When did you join? All the way back in 2007!

What job title did you start with? Community Empowerment Officer

What’s your current job title? Assistant Director of Customers and Communities

Your story: When I joined Watford Community Housing 18 years ago, I didn’t expect to go on such a journey! Throughout my time here I’ve had seven different roles, each time gradually adding new areas of expertise and new services to my remit. It’s really helped me grow in confidence, knowledge and helped me to feel empowered.

In the beginning, I worked with local residents, the Gateway Membership Team and staff to ensure our ‘friendlier communities’ promises were met. I worked with tenant groups on our Neighbourhood Plans and helped to develop and fund the projects residents needed. I’ve spent a lot of time working out in the neighbourhoods and at evenings and weekends – I’ve ended up getting to know a lot of our tenants!

Nowadays, my role covers a lot more. I manage around 70 staff across nine different teams and I’m responsible for ensuring we deliver on our strategies and visions in Housing Management, Communities and Customer Services. As well as meeting our goals for the services we provide for residents, it’s my job to help my teams feel empowered to do their day-to-day jobs in the best way they can and make improvements along the way.

What makes you stay with us? Every day I see our staff do great things. We make a huge difference to vulnerable families and give them a quality home and a solid foundation upon which to build. I love the organisation, the people are fantastic and our Operations team work very closely together.

I have been challenged to grow as an individual and this has made me want to stay and see projects through to completion. Also, I’ve seen the impact that our organisation has had in the past 11 years – and I know things have only just begun. 

When did you join? 2020

What job title did you start with? Communications Apprentice

What’s your current job title? Marketing and Communications Officer

Your story: Starting any new job is daunting, but starting my first office job during the Covid-19 pandemic was quite the experience!

As a Communications Apprentice I took on a two-year Level 4 Marketing Executive qualification while working full-time in the Communications team. I thought the idea of earning whilst I’m learning sounded really appealing. Still to this day I love learning new things and I knew an apprenticeship would give me such a great depth of knowledge that you can actually apply to a real-life setting.

I found doing an apprenticeship a demanding but rewarding experience. Once you find the right balance of day-to-day work and studying, it can really complement the other rather than increase the workload. Doing a course like this really taught me how best to prioritise work and stay in control of my time management, skills that I still use every day.

After completing my course, I was so pleased to be given the opportunity to stay with my team and progress my career. Before starting at Watford Community Housing, I had no idea what the word 'communications' even meant in this context! Now I use so much of what I learnt on my course to tailor our communications and engage the right audience – from messages to internal colleagues and partners, all the way to our residents, external stakeholders and the local press.

If you are thinking about doing an apprenticeship, do it. Whatever your age or educational background, an apprenticeship is a great way to learn something new.

What makes you stay with us? The support I receive from my team and colleagues across the organisation is why I stay. Everyone works hard to make Watford Community Housing an inclusive and collaborative environment, so it makes coming to work very easy. Also being able to see all the good we are doing for our residents and the local community on a day-to-day basis is one of the things I love most about my job.

When did you join? 2015

What job title did you start with? Plasterer

What’s your current job title? Clerk of Works

Your story: In 2015 I joined the Operations team as a plasterer, and after two promotions and a move to the Development team I've completed my HNC Level 4 in Building Construction Management!

When I was promoted to Team Leader for Void Properties, Watford Community Housing offered me the opportunity to pursue a relevant academic qualification, which they would pay for.

I studied for two years at BTec Level 3 and two additional years to gain my HNC Level 4, achieving a distinction in both of my courses. During this time, I was promoted again to my current development role of Clerk of Works, where I'm making use of my new qualifications to improve the quality and speed of our development projects.

What makes you stay with us? I am very grateful to the organisation for giving me this opportunity to improve my skills and knowledge. I'm happy I can now give back by ensuring compliance and quality is followed on my projects, avoiding costly delays and helping to keep within the construction programme.