A first for chartered membership

My career in housing began back in 2002 when I joined the sector as an HR officer. I soon found that I was driven and motivated by the values of the business and supporting individuals within the community to improve their lives. I no longer saw myself as just an HR professional – I viewed myself as a housing professional playing a part in making a difference.

I am now acting chief executive of Sadeh Lok Housing Association. In April this year, we joined the Incommunities Group

I’ve been a CIH member for over seven years now and a chartered member since May.

Being a CIH member has helped as I have been able to access good practice guidance, develop my skill sets through training events and network and build relationships with colleagues.

As a leader within the sector, I felt that it was important to gain the chartered member status to raise my professional credibility.

I coach and mentor both internal and external housing professionals and so I feel it is important to hold this level of membership. As a role model, I hope others will see what I have achieved and aspire to work towards achieving professional standards for themselves.

The executive route gave me the opportunity to use my existing experience and knowledge in order to attain chartered membership. As a busy professional this was invaluable.

I would also like to be more involved in supporting CIH, so becoming a chartered member was actually a very important personal goal for me.

It was challenging – you needed to put a lot of thought and preparation into your presentation and getting ready for the panel interview. At the end of the assessment, I was mentally drained but pleased that I had gone through the process. It was good to meet others in the cohort and be involved in assessing their performance.

The panel (Paul Tennant, Karen Armitage and Judy Waugh) were very experienced and pitched the questions at a high level so that they were challenging. The questions test your ability and, ultimately, how you met the assessment criteria.

Definitely – but it’s not a walk in the park!

The journey has taken me a couple of months to complete and you need to put the time and effort into preparing for your assessment and look at how you are going to demonstrate that you meet the criteria. Just because you have worked in the sector for many years will not guarantee you will pass. It takes hard work and dedication but I’d recommend it without hesitation.