How did you first hear about jobs in housing?

Back when I was living at home my parents rented their accommodation from the councils previously and latterly the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE). I must admit I did not have any understanding or knowledge of housing or what it involved. Basically housing was not my personal choice as a career. Like many at the time I did not have a planned career. I saw an advert for clerical officer positions for both the Housing Executive in Belfast and the Inland Revenue, as it was then, and just applied. I went for the interviews and got the offer of the job in Belfast with the Housing Executive first so I accepted it.

How did you find further information about a career in housing?

Essentially I did not do any research or seek out any information on a career in housing. Like many people I just happened to stumble into it and I can't say it was part of my overall career plan to work in housing. Being young at the time it just did not seem important to me as my plans were really to get a job, save some money, and head off to live in Canada. So much for plans!

What was it that appealed to you when you were thinking about a job in housing?

Truthfully? Absolutely nothing! I didn't have any understanding at all about housing or what it offered as a career. It was only after working within the sector for a while that I began to become aware of the reality of the possible prospects for a career in housing.

How did you get your first job in housing?

I had just left school at the time and was awaiting confirmation of a place at the then 'polytechnic', now the University of Ulster, (I think I'm giving away my age here!). Anyway, as I said, my destination was Canada where my sister and brother had emigrated to. I did go there for a few months and returned to save up the money to emigrate.

However, I needed to get money so having applied for clerical officer posts with the Inland Revenue and Housing Executive I was offered the Housing Executive position in Belfast first so I took it. The rest is now history.

What personal skills and qualifications did you have that helped you secure your first job in housing?

Absolutely none. I was young, had just left school and was 'unemployed'. I'm not sure if I even had the basic understanding of what a career or job was all about!

The 'troubles' were fairly bad then, unemployment was rife and like many others my expectations probably weren't too great. All I had was my 'O' & 'A' Levels and experience of part time jobs.

I was very lucky though when I was offered the job with the Housing Executive and that was really the start of my career in housing.

What skills & training have you gained since you have had your job in housing?

I have been very fortunate throughout my career in housing, especially during my time in the Housing Executive. It was a great organisation to work for with plenty of opportunities for training and development and, surprisingly, there always seemed to be opportunities for advancing through the ranks. There were lots of training courses and I was able to study on a part time basis for my BTEC qualifications in Public Administration. I think it was during this period that I finally realised that there was potential for a career in housing. Later the Housing Executive also supported me to undertake the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) Professional Qualification in Housing Studies on a part time basis. It took three years and was fairly tough as I had to work full time, had a part time job and a young family. Still it was all part of the challenge.

I've continued on a sort of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) programme throughout my career and I've been very selective about what I was going to spend my time on. I gave up progressing through the purely academic route, (I never was very smart anyway!), opting instead for developing my practical work skills and experience. I was able to move around quite a lot in the Housing Executive and gained lots of experience in many departments and in many different roles throughout my time there. I even had the opportunity to work on 'detached duty' with external organisations and, in hindsight, I think it was this breadth of actual experience that enabled me to move into the voluntary housing sector first as Director and latterly in my current role as Chief Executive.

Thinking about it, the most important skills I developed in my career probably relate to when I first started in the Housing Executive as a clerical officer. Being well organised and making sure that you keep good records, properly filed and retrievable is as important today as it was 30 years ago when I first started. The 'box tickers' haven't gone away you know!

As you move through the administrative functions to supervisory roles, management, and eventually leadership some things remain constant. The ability to remain organised, level headed and in control in the face of sometimes fairly extreme pressures is a critical skill for all managers and leaders. Rational decision making in periods of extreme pressure is what real world leadership is all about and while the books can certainly help to inform your responses it's the old fashioned experience that really counts.

If I could pass on anything worthwhile to others following a career path whether in housing or not it would be this; Build your academic knowledge and learn as much as possible but never ever sacrifice the opportunity to gain from the real life experience of the practice itself. Your best learning experiences will come from your most monumental failures. The real test and opportunities are in accepting the lessons that failure teaches you and ensuring that your future decisions are better ones. Believe it or not it really is that simple!

Describe a typical day?

I wish I could. That's a mystery that has been around for as long as I can remember. There is no typical day other than each day has its own challenges, achievements and failures; but one thing is certain - housing can never be described as dull or boring!

I suppose there is a sort of structure to my day in relation to work and that's probably the best I could offer as a typical day and it would go something much along the lines of; Early rise and at my desk usually around 7.00 - 7.30am. I'm a morning person and get more done before the world wakens up. Sort out the emails, try to clear up my desk, organise my diary and set the days priorities - actually it is only a wish list as more often than not other things come up that take over. The secret is in being flexible enough to ensure that you have the scope to re-act to the changing circumstances and priorities.

Most importantly would be the '10 minute quick chat' with my senior managers, mostly in an informal structure as I think that sometimes you get a lot more creativity and ownership outside the rigid meeting structures. There is also the proverbial formal meetings, paper work, filing and telephone calls, staffing issues, correspondence, problem solving and decision making as well as lots of 'key boarding' - Just think, if we lived somewhere else we could probably be enjoying 'surf boarding' and other things instead of 'key boarding' on our computers!

I wish I could get out and about a bit more but still come around 6.00 - 6.30pm it's off home. If I'm lucky I get down to the gym for a bit of a work out and some stress busting before a bit of light reading, supper and zzzzz's and then it's back to normal for another day in housing! Roll on the weekend and I get the chance to get away into the Mourne Mountains!

What would you tell people who are interested in a housing career?

It would certainly be different to tell people who have actually thought about making housing their career choice. Like many people my career path was purely an accidental one and I just fell into it. That said it has been a tremendous career full of variety and challenges, opportunities for progression whether in promotions or learning & development; never dull and always demanding but more importantly it is, in my opinion, one of the key 'spokes in the wheel of life' that each and every one of us will experience at some point. The need for shelter is as basic a human requirement as food & water. Its provision is critical to all of us, addressing its lack of provision is the challenge to every society throughout the world.

Where else could you find a career that straddles and impacts on so much of human geography and quality of life? Today there are over 1 billion people living in urban slums alone; over 100,000 families are joining these slums each day; whatever you desire in your own life surely the opportunity to contribute to or do something to influence, impact on, or change people's lives in such a fundamental way is what having a really successful and fulfilling career is all about?

It's one that will give you the opportunity to positively impact on the quality of life for those you serve and that of society itself. You could not choose a more deserving and worthwhile career.