If you are passionate about helping people, you may well have found yourself working in housing.
Jo Griffin, who has worked in the sector for over thirty years, says her commitment to it has always been driven by her love to be able to make a difference in people’s lives. As it is National Careers Week, and we’re a little bit nosy, we’ve asked Jo to share her career journey.
The housing career climb
“I started as a Housing Officer; things were really different back then," Jo said: "I spent every morning rent collecting; I had a hideous leather satchel and a folder with rent strips in it.
“It was ‘cash only’ and I’d do my round then get on the bus with about £6000 in my bag. You can almost hear the Hovis theme tune, can’t you? How I didn’t get mugged I’ll never know.”
Jo talks about her first job. She said: “My first patch was Freehold in Rochdale; you might recall this is where Awaab Ishaq lived? It was a tough patch, but it set me up really well for a career in housing.
“Since then, I’ve always moved around to gain more skills including a stint as a Community Safety Manager and in housing strategy, but my heart lies with the customer facing teams. “
The importance of personal development
As she was keen to develop herself in the role Jo went to the University of Salford to do a degree in Social Housing and became qualified with the Chartered Institute of Housing. Her career in Housing has been varied and she recognises the importance of good partnership working.
She said: “I worked on devolution for Greater Manchester which meant managing a team of social workers and police officers – that was incredibly interesting and demonstrated how we are all working with the same people. I also loved that the police used to call me ‘Ma’am’.”
Over the span of her career, she’s spotted that the issues are largely the same. “There just isn’t enough decent housing to go round – but I’m proud to work for Yorkshire Housing where we are doing our bit, Jo said.
“Anti-social behaviour still exists – but we’ve got better tools to manage it now. Importantly – customers really appreciate decent, warm, and safe housing, so I’m really happy I took the path I did!”
Jo’s Top Career Tips:
- Outside your comfort zone is where the good stuff happens; step up and volunteer
- Always be on a learning path
- Seize the opportunity to do something different
- And always think about moving across to do something different, not everyone needs to be a manager to develop