I think, like many, a career in housing was never something I grew up aspiring to pursue. As a child I wanted to be an astronaut, then as I grew up I wanted to be a police officer and at university I wanted to be a teacher. I never knew growing up that a career in social housing was even a thing.

After university and living back home with my parents for a while, I decided I wanted to travel, so I went to Australia on a working holiday visa for nearly two years. After having an amazing time travelling and gaining once in a lifetime experiences, I was back home and needed to find a place to work. My mum said that her work was looking for customer service advisors, I put in my application, and the rest is history.

I starting my housing career as a customer service advisor at Bromford, where no two days were the same. With every call I took, it seemed I learned something new and with being the first line of contact, we took a whole variety of calls. From repairs to antisocial behaviour, from rent to domestic violence.

Some calls were very difficult to handle and others were extremely rewarding and made everything worthwhile. All these calls showed me that housing isn’t just about providing bricks and mortar, but we are actually helping people day in and day out. Providing not just a house, but a home to our residents in order to give them the support they need in order to help themselves.

I had the drive to do more, and thankfully I had the opportunity to be part of the customer solutions team. Dealing with complaints on a daily basis was challenging, but when I was able to find a resolution for the resident and for the business, it gave me massive sense of accomplishment. Whilst the opportunity made me grow in so many ways, me and my partner decided to move again, this time back to the village he grew up in Pembrokeshire, where I started my career at Bro Myrddin.

Although I have only been here a relatively short time, Bro Myrddin is like a family and the support from my team, and the company as a whole, has been amazing. After coming from such as large housing association, to an association with just over 1,000 properties was a breath of fresh air. I started as a customer service advisor and after just two months, I was appointed Operations Team Leader. I am growing with my new leadership role and continue to develop day by day.

I can’t wait to see where my career in housing will take me next.