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How much are they paying you?
My salary is £30,000.

Previous job
Senior administration officer covering property and housing for Wycombe district council.

Why did you change jobs?
I had been working in administration for 10 years so I wanted a job where I was more involved and had more of an impact. With this job, I get to focus on homes. I like being able to provide services – working with the elderly and what they want.

What does the new job entail?
Lots of things. I'm working on a management information pack for the court – or estate – managers, who are like wardens. They need up-to-date information so they can quickly respond to problems in each area and react to any new policy.

When new policy comes into force, I write procedures for operational staff, housing services managers and administrators, telling them where to focus their efforts.

I also work on telephone and letter complaints, and liaise across the organisation. I survey tenant activity and see how everything is working. I will attend tenant forums, so I know what happens at the ground roots, but I'm based at head office in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire.

What's the best part so far?
I like that I can combine practical work with academic skills and I get a buzz from working with people and using IT to improve systems.

What's the most challenging aspect?
The timeframe is pretty tight but I enjoy it – it's a challenge to get things done to the deadline. You also have to get people on your side, which can be difficult when they don't agree. I also find it challenging learning how the organisation works, and everyone performs differently so it is tough to adjust. But I don't mind it because I get such a kick out of doing something new.

Also, before I started, I had the impression that the support systems – such as IT and research tools – were more advanced than they are. But when I joined, I discovered that, in the day-to-day running, several regions weren't getting the information they needed, and IT was not doing what you'd like it do. However, the system has the things in place, it was just a matter of sorting it out.

What's the atmosphere like?
One thing that's struck me is the sense of calm. It's pretty quiet – noone's running around like a headless chicken.

I'm not sure whether that's because there's such a strong sense of doing something useful or because we go out of the office an awful lot.

Is commuting better or worse?
Much better. It used to take me 90 minutes – two hours on a bad day – but now I just live six miles down the road so it takes no time. At worst, it will take 35 minutes and it's all through countryside, anyway.

Where next?
I'd definitely like to carry on doing what I'm doing now. I get a kick from making things happen and I would like to be in some senior advisory capacity. The good thing about working in the public sector is you can be over 50 and age is not an issue.