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I have been working in the mortgage industry for 21 years!! Since 2001.
I was working in recruitment before and although I enjoyed that it was not something I wanted to do long term. When the opportunity came up to work in mortgages I took it. My dad ran his own IFA and had a good chat with him about joining the industry. Sadly he had sold his firm before I started in the industry.
I was first diagnosed with dyslexia when I was about 6 years old. It did not affect my daily life, although I did struggle in class, especially with spelling and grammar.
It’s been a hard graft to get where I am today, with many challenges en route (credit crunch, BREXIT, COVID and now soaring inflation and wars breaking out). It takes a good while to build up a strong client bank and build up referrals and contacts.
At the beginning I struggled with organisation and was a little all over the place. Once I organised myself and found a system that worked for me, it made my life a lot easier!!
I think what makes me good at my job is that I’m just me! I write on average between 10 to 15 cases per month. I’m hard working and very possessive over my clients. I make sure it’s always me who updates the clients with good or bad news, and make sure my clients are always up to date and never chasing me. I am also very organised and work in a set way!
Being dyslexic does affect my working processes. I need to check and double check every email I write and every application I submit, to make sure I am not writing something daft or spelling names wrong on applications. I often annoy myself when I am triple checking I have entered correct dates of birth and spelled names correctly!
I am very lucky to have felt well supported throughout my career. I started at Countrywide and they were first class in supporting me. They sent me to be reassessed and made sure I got the training support to get though the CEMap tests and that I was allocated the extra time needed to complete the test. When I first joined MAB in 2003 with an estate agent in Reading, they also made sure I had the required additional time to complete tests and made sure I understood their systems.
I do believe there are some advantages to having dyslexia. It makes you work to a set system and always double check what you do. Most problems occur as people do not check the information they are inputting, or work in an organised set way.
My advice to anyone with dyslexia considering a career in the mortgage industry would be to always make sure that, which ever company or network you join, they know you have dyslexia and may need additional time for tests etc. Don’t be concerned to let people know. If I can do it then so can anyone!
My advice to an employer wanting to support someone with dyslexia is easy. Just make sure they have the initial support they need. In most cases they need very little or nothing at all. Dyslexia is not an issue – just look at me!
