What made you consider a career in energy efficiency?

I was at my last company for nearly 15 years but then it closed down and I was made redundant. I thought I’d give banking one more go but my heart wasn’t in it; it was during lockdown, and I just realized I didn’t want to do it anymore. But the million dollar question was ‘what will I do now?’

Now, if you’d asked my friends they would have all said ‘property’ because I’m always talking about it (either that or running). I’ve also been a landlord for over 25 years and I’m very hands on; I take an interest so I know how things are built and I do a lot of DIY.

The only thing was, I thought none of my skills were transferrable to the property sector.

So what did you do?

My dad is a structural engineer and architect by trade. As a child I used to go out with him onsite and saw him working. He was the one who suggested SAP calcs.

I did the OCDEA course online during lockdown, and, truthfully, I found it a struggle but plugged away. I thought: ‘I’ve just paid a lot of money – I really have to make this work!’

After I qualified I did a few jobs my dad had been involved in. Later on though I did the DEA course because the social side appealed to me (which I found much easier) – probably because I’d done the OCDEA course. And after that I did the Retrofit Assessor course.

Why did you move into Retrofit work?

I think Retrofit is very topical at the moment and it’s an area that’s growing a lot.

When I saw the position advertised with Elmhurst I thought it was a great opportunity to expand my knowledge and learn from more senior people in the team.

Working part-time also means I can still work for myself and complete assessments, and bring that experience to the team. So far it’s been great and everyone’s been really friendly! I definitely don’t regret working in investment management for over 25 years, but lockdown was definitely the catalyst for re-evaluating what I wanted out of life and I’m glad I made the move.