My recent career change, which has brought me into the Energy and Utilities Sector stemmed from the moment I was encouraged down the creative route at school and away from science and maths which I had always had great interest in but not the confidence to go against the direction I was being encouraged to take.

This start to my education and career has given me creative thinking along with my natural aptitude for analysis and technical process.

After studying an Art foundation at Central St Martins London and completing a degree in drawing design and practice at Bristol, where I focused on practical processes and workshop based skills, I came to the conclusion that I did not want a career as and artist.

After university I was successful in my application to work with The National Trust as a project assistant delivering contemporary arts programs in heritage properties, this was the beginning of a 7 year portfolio career in the Arts and Heritage sector working with incredible museums and collection such as the British Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, Tate and installing exhibitions in a variety of countries within collection care and exhibition install project management roles.

The arts and heritage world was fascinating, the collections incredible and the work interesting however something for myself was missing.

I decided I needed to create more space within my working world outside of working within large arts institutes to be able to reflect on my experience and to reflect on what direction I wanted to take.

I set up a fine art picture framing business, as I had trained as a framer along the way, which gave me thinking time whilst framing and the opportunity to put a fund together to retrain. My thoughts kept coming back to engineering and working with something that could be considered a necessity.

The framing business was going well and had gained good traction from the network I had created within the arts and heritage sector and then just under two years on covid hit, museums and galleries closed their doors and stop commissioning new frames and my regular contracts came to a halt, I kept the business just about afloat by putting flyer through local doors to build a new client base, and then the owner of the workshop I rented decided to sell up, the business was just that bit to young to survive. I decided to use this a spring board moment and make the full move into a new direction, sold the business and took a sale a marketing role for a few months on a managers development program then came across an advert for the British Gas Engineer Apprenticeship.

There was no better time to go back to the beginning and retrain in a new industry and this felt like the right fit. I threw myself in and enjoyed learning the technical processes, achieved my gas and electric qualification as a metering engineer and was working as a metering engineer in central London, I have been fascinated by the energy market and the direction its moving and privileged to support energy customers within their homes. The combination of the human centered, technical and business factors that is the energy and utility sector has captured me, and after 6 months within the British Gas apprenticeship I had applied for and been offered the role I am currently in, Customer delivery manager, managing a team of metering engineers in North Kent.

It has now almost been a year since I took the leap into something new and the learning curve has been steep and the dust is still settling, I feel very motivated to support the work of the energy and utility sector and the people it impacts and I am excited for what the future holds.

Within my day to day I hope to inspire others with my experience and the character it has created in me to support others to feel confident in the choice they make. Through out my career I have face many challenges and unpredictable moments, made bold decisions and pushed boundaries with successful results. It is possible to turn life’s challenges around when you stay strong, remain resilient and show courage. A message I hope to be able to share with many.