At Glenholme, we love sharing stories about career progression. A prime example of that is Jay Stroud, the deputy manager at Haddon House, Peterborough. Jay is a gamer, dog owner to German Shepard, Akela and an avid gym goer. His story didn’t start in a care setting, but rather on a hairdresser shop floor in the Midlands. The Nuneaton native worked as a professional hairdresser for 14 years before making a big lifestyle change. He moved to Peterborough in 2019 and began pounding the pavement to find a new job.
He was looking for a new challenge and was unsure of what he wanted to do he’d applied to various roles and Glenholme was the successful one. It was a shot in the dark, “I never would have positioned myself in a care setting, I never thought that would have been a route that I would have gotten into at all.” Reflecting on his journey, it’s clear that the care sector embraced him with open arms.
Jay had some hesitation and the normal anxieties around starting a new position. Leaving his comfort zone was an alien experience. He admits to having lacked confidence due to the little he knew about care in comparison to his position as a hairdresser. Jay spoke about his experience when he first started. His willingness to learn proved advantageous. “I’ve really enjoyed learning so much, in contrast to my previous role. Coming into care, I could see the progression of other staff moving up the ranks and I could see that process happening in the service. Seeing that gave me the drive to apply myself to achieve the same”.
Haddon House was set to be inspected by the Peterborough Local Authority, for two days where they had to prepare several different tasks in an extremely limited amount of time. This caused an understandable amount of pressure on the specialist service staff. They did however rise to the occasion after a grueling process. It was an encouraging moment for everyone involved. Having only stepped into the role as deputy in September, it was still all very new to him.
With just days to prepare before having everything looked through with a fine-tooth comb was something he described as “quite a lot of pressure”. Jay occasionally goes back to his roots, so to speak, visits home and finds time to cut his loved one’s hair. He is a kind-natured, sociable person with a great work ethic and it shows in his journey from where he began with us.
