What it's like to be a female gas engineer: It’s a gas to be out and about

After seven years with British Gas, the 31-year-old has become used to people automatically expecting a man when turns up at their home.

But she loves working in a traditionally male-dominated industry and enjoys proving that her gender doesn’t stop her from doing a good job.

She is a smart energy expert and her role is to install smart meters, which monitor energy use, in homes and show customers how to get the best out of them and save money.

“Before I started with British Gas, I was working in a job centre. I saw an advert for a Smart Energy Expert at British Gas and thought it sounded interesting – I’d always wanted a job that got me out-and-about, and it seemed like the perfect fit.

“I’ve always been really hands-on and enjoyed doing practical work, so when I saw the job advert I thought it was something different to what I was currently doing, and it got me excited.

“I also like that British Gas is a big business, so I get to work with different people, learn new things and be part of a team.

“I started the training in 2011 and after a six-month training period, I was ready to start installing smart meters. The training was intense, but it equipped me with all the knowledge and skills I need to do my job. I’ve never looked back,” says mother of one Vanessa.

British Gas serves more than 10 million homes in Britain and over 400,000 businesses across the UK and employs in excess of 8,000 highly-trained engineers.

The number of home visits Vanessa, who is one of 2,000 smart energy experts, makes in a day can vary depending on the type of property and where there electricity supply is located.

“My typical day involves getting up at 6am and getting my van ready, making sure I’ve got all the tools and equipment I need to do my job and checking how many customer visits I’ve got on that day – all while getting my son ready to go to school.

“I usually have between three and six jobs per day, depending on the complexity of each call-out.

“For the more difficult ones, such as customers that live in older houses where the electricity meter might be trickier to get to, I’ll usually ask my smart energy coach to come along.

“It just helps to speed up the visit and not take up as much of the customer’s time,” explains Vanessa.

She tells us that there are actually more women doing the same job as her than most people might think.

“British Gas has a great mix of people and the team dynamic is really inclusive.

“Sometimes the customers are surprised when they open the door to me, because they automatically expect a man to be there, but they quickly realise that it makes no difference if I’m male or female – the service and quality of work they receive is the same, irrespective of my gender!,” says Vanessa, who lives in Willenhall.

Her job is to show people how they can save money by reducing their energy use and monitoring how much they are spending and she looks after customers in Wolverhampton and parts of Walsall.

“My favourite part of the job is going out to visit customers and meeting new people. As part of my role, I help people understand their energy use through smart meters and show them how they can use the data from the meter to reduce how much power they’re using.

“It’s easy for people to become disengaged with their energy use, but when customers see just how much energy they are using, in pounds and pence, it’s a good reason to start making small changes in the home to reduce energy use. I find it really rewarding,” explains Vanessa.

As a mother, it was important for her to be able to balance her job around looking after her 10-year-old son. “When I first started, the biggest challenge for me was managing childcare for my son, but British Gas has been really supportive of that and I now have a term-time only contract. It means I get to spend time with my son during the school holidays.

“Nowadays, my biggest challenge is how to politely say no to tea and coffee, as customers are always very generous, and I must get offered around eight to 10 cups a day,” she says.

Although she can make dozens of visits in a week, there are some that have stuck in her memory.

“I was once called out to an elderly lady who had dementia. Her gas supply had been cut off that day by a third-party company and they had accidentally booked a smart energy expert to sort it, rather than one of our service and repair engineers.

“When I arrived, her house was cold and when I realised what’d happened, I went and got the customer a heater and sat with her until my manager got an emergency service and repair engineer out.

“Thankfully, it all got sorted within a couple of hours, but that particular day made me realise how much I enjoy helping people as part of my job,” she explains.

There is plenty of job satisfaction for Vanessa who tells us: “All of my customers are great, and it’s a nice feeling knowing that you’ve helped them in some way.

“They’re always shocked to see how much energy they’re using so it makes it worthwhile knowing that I’m doing my bit to help people cut down on how much they use. A little goes a long way!”