Graduate profiles

Hester Steedman-Thake

Hester graduated in 2009 in Human Geography from Edinburgh University, where her degree had focused on urban inequality and urban renewal.

“As part of my degree I had researched social housing and gentrification, but I wasn’t necessarily set on a career in the housing sector. However when I read about Affinity Sutton’s projects on the website, I could really see the links to what I’d been interested in during my degree. The scheme itself focused on identifying potential and building skills. The application and assessment process was well designed for recent graduates, and intended to discover who you are as a person and what skills and qualities you could bring to the organisation.

I started with a research focused placement in Housing Management. This involved travelling around the country to meet front line teams and visit many of the estates we look after. My second three months were in the Community Investment team where I worked on a variety of different projects covering everything from monitoring grants to investigating resident’s use and expectations of our website.

The second half of the year took in Strategic Research, where I developed a research project to feed in to our customer insight work. Alongside, we were working on our World Cup project, which was fantastic. My last placement was in Finance. I produced a number of pieces of research shaping how we monitor and report on things within the organisation.

It’s been really interesting to switch departments and work with so many different people. It’s a really fast paced learning experience, but fortunately, you have your mentor to provide continuity - they support your development over the course of the year. Often, we’ve been given consultative roles, carrying out research and presenting solutions. It’s been really positive to feel your recommendations are shaping the services we give to residents.

On the other hand, there’s also the opportunity to really get stuck in and get your hands dirty - quite literally in some cases! One of my projects this year is co-ordinating works to improve the appearance of our estates – helping to make them places that residents can take pride in. We’re investing significant resources in plants, trees and landscaping and we’ll be involving the residents, with community planting days happening across the country and a chance to volunteer to renovate a community garden.

Alongside all the opportunities for development, getting out to the estates and meeting our residents is what I really I enjoy about working here – it’s a really positive experience to see the impact of our work first hand.”