About Victoria

I didn't set out to work in operations or project management. I started out training to be a primary school teacher which I soon realised wasn't for me. My mum's advice was characteristically direct: “go get a job”. So within five days I was on my way to the French Alps as a chalet maid, having never set foot on a mountain before.

Following that adventure I caught the seasonnaire bug and headed off to be a hotel receptionist on the Amalfi coast, followed by a final season in the Alps. I eventually came back to the UK with a great suntan, a taste for limoncello and tartiflette, and most importantly a career plan. Returning to get a degree, having decided I wanted to travel the world as a hotel manager, I gained a BA (Hons) in Tourism Management.

But of course life had other plans. I met my husband weeks before I was supposed to leave for university, which rather derailed the hotel management career abroad I'd been planning.

What I found, almost by accident during university, was that I was good at performing under pressure. I juggled three jobs — an auxiliary nurse or barmaid by night, and hospital administrator by day, all while attending lectures and keeping good grades. I could walk into a situation, see what needed doing, and just get on with it, always asking — how can this be done more efficiently?

London, a fold-up bike, and a lot of hats

My first proper job out of university was with a ski tour operator in South Kensington — still living in Chelmsford, Essex, I cycled through London on a fold-up bike past along Embankment and past Buckingham Palace every day, I loved every minute of it, and within two years had been given more responsibility and was running the admin function. That became the pattern everywhere I went — I do good work, I get noticed, I get given more. Not because I was chasing titles, but because I genuinely love finding ways to make things run more efficiently, and that tends to get noticed. In the process, I've worn a lot of hats.

Towards the end of my time at the ski tour operator I enrolled at Pitman Secretarial College and completed a handful of courses that have served me well ever since — speed touch typing, audio typing, Excel Advanced, and shorthand. I loved every single one of them. The shorthand sadly never made it into regular use, but I genuinely enjoyed learning it.

The touch typing, on the other hand, I use every single day and I firmly believe it should be taught in every school. It's one of those quietly life-changing skills that nobody talks about enough. I also learned French during that time to help with reading the tour operator contracts — not fluent by any stretch, but useful enough to get by. It was the first time I really noticed that I enjoy learning for its own sake, not just because something is required of me. That pattern has never really changed.

From Essex to Devon, via the French Alps

I spent years commuting into London and loving the energy of it. But I needed a change of pace, and a break from the commute, so I soon pioneered working from home, being the first at my company at the time to make the switch. They saw my productivity soar and switched the entire company to remote working. And this was years before any sign of Covid-19!

Soon after my husband wanted to move to Devon to build his landscaping business, and I said yes. Best decision we ever made. We now live here with our two girls — aged 11 and 7 — four guinea pigs, two gerbils, and a packed schedule of gymnastics and swimming runs that would make a logistics manager weep.

Devon suits me. The beach, the countryside, the slower pace. But I still love a trip back to London or Essex to feel the buzz, while catching up with friends and family. And every now and then — once this January after years of trying (hence the photo) — I get back to the Alps to ski, which remains my favourite thing in the world and a goal I'm working hard to do more of.