FM Careers Spotlight Interview: Julie Jackson, Director of Facilities Management

• How did you get into FM?
• Did you purposely go into FM?
• Can you tell us a little bit about some of the individual projects you've worked on?
• How different did you find the transition from working on the pharmaceutical side to the client side?
• What do you feel the essential skills to work in a career in facilities management are?
• What have you found the main challenges have been?
• What's advice might you give for someone new coming into the sector?
• Are there any, trends or future developments that you think we should be highlighting more as an industry?
• What are the 3 best highlights of your career so far?

Michelle: I'm really delighted to welcome Julie Jackson. Julie has been in the FM industry for a while. After a 33-year career at Sodexo. Julie then became the director of FM for King's College London before moving into providing FM Consultancy Services.

Thank you, Julie, for joining me today. To talk about your career in FM for ourSpotlight series.

Julie Jackson: You're welcome. Thank you for inviting me, Michelle.

Michelle: You’re welcome. So, really, Julie, just to start off, very interested to understand about your career, how you got into FM.

Julie Jackson: So initially, without sort of going on too long about this. It started with, my Garden Merchant days. I started we've Garden Merchant, which is sort of linked with the Old Trust House Forte. So, I started off waitressing, and then obviously for the completion, after about 12 months of waitressing, I was put on a, a management trainee program, which sort of led me into the management side of then, hospitality and catering.

So, facilities wasn’t such a big thing over 30 years ago. It was it was a lot more around, the hotel catering side and sector would certainly, then Sodexo Garden Merchant was, so, initially, I spent various, opportunities working for organisations from, Mobil Oil, ICI.

The paints, pharmaceutical paints, going on sort of master foods. And this was predominantly hospitality and catering side.

Michelle: Because this is what you studied, wasn’t it, Julie, sorry.

Julie Jackson:Yes. Yeah. And I was lucky enough to have just a slight, extended change in my career between 2015, 2017. So, I came out of HSBC, and I did a six-month, stint in Jersey.

So, where I was doing some program management, over in Jersey, which, which was amazing to go over and do that. I then came back from Jersey and was given an opportunity to move over, into the facility side, which then sort of led me into, the amazing organisations of pharmaceuticals, which was GSK and AstraZeneca.

So I was, I was then sort of quickly. It feels like it just went so quick that time. And for management going into sort of like being facilities director, operations director with, with AstraZeneca.

And then 2017 I sort, sorry. So, 2020, I took my role as director of facilities for King's College London, which was absolutely amazing.

So I was there for four years and, it was great working at King's and that there was a whole breadth of, facilities management there. From the education side over to research.

Research was a big thing for me because I loved doing that from GSK and AstraZeneca. So, it was a it was a big, pull for me. And I've always loved, always loved facilities. I mean, being in this career path for well over sort of 30 odd years now. It's something that I've always said, I love walking into a building, and having a conversation about it could be about food. It could be engineering, sustainability, all within the space of five minutes. And it's just so varied. And I just absolutely love it.

And I think the, being. I think we sort of touched as well around being a woman in facilities as well, in terms of higher facilities positions, still need improving. It is quite sort of male orientated at that level. But however I think there is some movement on that.

Michelle: Yes. So from the outset, you’d done your training and stepped into, a role with Sodexo. Did you purposely, go for facilities management or was that did you realise that, you know, a lot of people say we didn't realise we were in FM, you know, we just went for this role following training, and now we realise that it’s the FM sector.

Julie Jackson: It was it was pretty much it was sort of my hospitality catering then got blended into facilities. And I remember talking to when I was with Sodexo, a number of my directors, and they said they talking to me about going into facilities.

And I remember saying to them, I don't have any facilities experience my background's hotel and catering. And they said, but everything we need in facilities is transferable.And you've got that.

And then we can just do some additional training as you come over. And they were absolutely right.

Michelle: Yeah. Good. So I mean, you've touched on some of the things you, you have done, it's great to tell people to a little bit more about the variety in some of the projects that you've worked, some because as we were just talking about before we started, I think a lot of people don't know what a FM necessarily is. And the breadth it encompasses.

So, you've worked on the pharmaceutical side, then you've worked for a college. Can you tell us a little bit about some of the individual projects you've worked on in the variety that program brought in?

Julie Jackson: Yes, sure. Yeah. So, it's a bit obviously can be. It's really quite strange, Michelle, because like I say, the organisations where it's pharmaceuticals, education, banking, and those organisations are very different.

The facilities that are within those organisations are not different at all. So those buildings still need food catered for, air conditioning, they still need furniture in certain locations, etc.

So, it is very, very similar, just set up differently. So, I think, what one of the great opportunities I've got was obviously with, AstraZeneca. And I was not north and south of the business, and it was supporting, AstraZeneca with the opening of their global headquarters in Cambridge. And literally from, from the first stage designs and drawings, hard hats, mud boots going into the, the building.

So, it was great to see the development of the floors going in there, if I remember at the time there was something about 900 scientists going into that building.

But the guys have done an absolute amazing job, and I unfortunately left just before that, actually, and opened because I was moving over to Kings.

But I did stay in contact with a lot of the guys and, it just looks, and I've seen pictures, and everything looks absolutely amazing.

When you, you sort of look at that. I missed what we were talking about earlier with transferable skills going over into education. And again, I remember going over into King’s thinking, you know, research site I know I'm not a scientist, but I know a lot about, being with with science and scientists and professors. I've not done education before.

And kings were absolutely amazing. And I remember going for my interview and they sort of said, you know, we can see your background and, you know, the leadership and that's what we need. And it was, again, just an amazing journey just to see, I suppose, the love that Kings has for its students in particular.

And making the world a better place for, you know, for the students and creating leaders of the future and saving lives on the other side of the college.

Michelle: Yeah.

Julie Jackson:And to be part of that made a huge difference.

Michelle: So, working on both sides, so working on the service provider side, although obviously, you know, close to the client and the pharmaceutical side to then stepping across and working directly for, you know, the client.

Julie Jackson:Yeah.

Michelle: How different did you find that transition?

Julie Jackson: I didn't find it difficult myself. So, I think the, the only difference for me was it sort of cut out a level, some levels of, where you had to go to get decisions and reporting.

So obviously, as a service provider, you are in a client building You would go to here, to there, to there, for example, to get a decision to do something. Obviously being the end client. There may be some levels, but nowhere near as many.

So sometimes, you know, that that was actually a benefit in terms of, operationally getting things moving.

Michelle: Yeah. So, moving to skills then, Julie. What advice could you give, what do you feel the essential skills, to work in a career in facilities management? And how’ve you developed those yourself as you've moved the career?

Julie Jackson: So, I would, I mean, obviously I've got an awful lot for myself. I have an awful lot of life skills coming through, here.

However, I think for younger people, I would absolutely say to try and get in some form of apprenticeship into facilities. And it's just don’t think it’s something that we see enough of in terms of apprentices coming through into, we see them occasionally going into areas such as maybe engineering apprentice and things like that that want to be doing electrical, plumbing, but to do facilities management. There's nowhere near enough.

And I think that's a huge piece is trying to capture, those that young generation that are going through university and bringing them through into facilities management, apprenticeships.

Michelle: I think there's more happening now than perhaps there was before the specific degrees and training and people like the IWFM and Rising FMs, you know in schools and colleges and things.

So yeah, finding, finding out about those promoting them isn't self, but more from within our own sector. People being able to research perhaps you know what's on offer there.

Julie Jackson: Yes.

Michelle: Okay. Challenges then, throughout your career in FM what have you found the main challenges have been and can you give any tips on what might have helped you progress? And grow personally yourself?

Julie Jackson: Yeah. I think probably one of the, the biggest ones, Michelle was moving, into management directorship, I suppose, of a very, male orientated environment of facilities.

And, and it is absolutely it is improving. However, you know, I think for me, it was being in a position where I'm not very, you know, I don't get intimidated easily.

It's having that confidence to walk into a meeting room, for example, where which I've done on many occasions, where you're, even sometimes the only female in the room or one of two females in a room. And not to be not heard.

Michelle: Yes.

Julie Jackson: And not to just not, you know, I’d always make a point of trying to make myself, known. Even if it's my wife walking in and doing a formal introduction of yourself.

But I think for me, the biggest tip is, these is to, don’t go unheard.

Michelle: Yes. Yeah. Okay. And there are a lot more women now in senior positions and all sorts of different 'positions' in FM I think again it's 'that visibility’ again, isn't it?

You know, people knowing what that career in FM entails and the, the broad range of opportunities that are on offer.

Okay.

Someone new coming into the sector, looking to work in a FM. What's advice might you give?

Julie Jackson: I would, I would say, take the time to, IWFM, for example, become a member of a recognised organisation such as IWFM.

Get some, they do some amazing training. So really take advantage of training that's available even down via LinkedIn and LinkedIn. I've used that lots of occasions, with the training.

And I think don't just, don't just settle that if you've done that a degree at university a number of years that, that, that your training done is great to have that don't get me wrong, but you need to continually refresh all the time.

I'm in terms of what's happening in the industry changes, etc. Even down to reading is, a reading of, of, magazines and some of the, I don’t want to name lots of the ones there may be some you won’t want to read through, but reading some of the magazines that come through and papers.

Michelle: Yes. Trends and future developments and different things that perhaps people don't always know or associate FM with. So, you know, sustainability, all the things that people are doing on carbon reduction and, ESG and things like that are there any, trends or future developments that you think we should be highlighting more as an industry?

Julie Jackson:I do, and, I think, you know, I think for me, there's probably two sides to that. There's, there's the environment and sustainability in terms of, from a government point of view of what they're trying to achieve.

So, you can get that in any way. Obviously, you can go on to websites, et and that's really easy to obtain. But one of the key things as well is the organisations that you're working in, not all organisations profile environment sustainability on their, their web pages very clearly or even at the fore front.

So, I'll definitely say, to take the time to really look and understand what the objectives are, what the vision is of that organisation that you're in position to, to, from the facilities point of view, to be able to support that journey. Going through the time that you're working.

Michelle: Okay. Be great to understand what the best parts of your career have been. So, what do you love about FM the most.

What are the, perhaps, three things you could highlight?

Julie Jackson:Change. I love change. People, just the, the various different types of people that you can that you work with. And I'm going to say time and what I mean by time is that, it sounds really Schank, but for me it’s a never-ending journey with facilities.

I don't I've never I've never, ever seen, an end to something. So, for example, I came out of college, and I always used to say to my parents at the time, the day I wake up, I think, “Oh, I don't want to do this anymore” means, I need to change career. I'm still doing it.

Michelle: Yeah.

Julie Jackson: Yeah, you know, so I, I think time for me is, it’s a great journey to get into facilities.

Michelle: Good, good. I'm really pleased you’ve said that. Obviously. And I think every, every, discussion I have with people, the, people side of it, you know, really just get highlighted.

There's a lot of supportive people in the industry and, people willing to talk to one another and introduce, to one another's networks, which always comes across.

Thank you so much, Julie. I've loved speaking to you and hearing a little bit about your career journey, so I appreciate your time.

Julie Jackson: No problem at all. Thank you. Michelle.