My career has been quite varied – I’ve worked in travel, for national parks, in historic homes and museums, and retail – but I’ve always been strongly motivated by helping people and ‘doing a good job’. Those motivations, coupled with strong customer service experience, really help me in my role here at Choose OH: I’m often the first person that our clients and their employees will see or speak to, and providing that positive first impression is important.
Being organised and efficient are key skills for being successful in my role, too. There’s generally a lot of consistency to what I can be working on each day but being able to balance workloads and priorities and then manage the urgent and unexpected tasks helps ensure nothing gets missed. As well as working with Sophie on the incoming administration work, I also look after Choose OH’s marketing which helps keep my work varied.
There’s a really strong team working ethos here; it’s no cliché to describe us as a little family. We work well together and help each other out not simply because we have to, but because we want to. We work hard together but we also take the time to know each other as individuals – there’s often plenty of laughter to be heard! Having great colleagues – people who are supportive, kind and honest – was really important for me when I was looking for a job, and I’ve been lucky to find that here at Choose OH.
Outside of work, I’m a keen runner and fell walker, and I’m very involved with both parkrun and junior parkrun here in Carlisle – the picture to the left is from my first stint as Run Director for Carlisle parkrun, when I celebrated my 50th volunteering day. I’m working my way through the Wainwright fells of the Lake District, as well as exploring as much of this corner of England as possible; and I’ve completed several running races, including a 50-mile ultra marathon. Being a determined and hard-working person pays off in both my work and home life!