Claire Spencer

"The personality types very closely match my personality. I love to encourage and train others to help them to be the best version of themselves. I love to do a job that keeps me on my toes so it needs to include lots of problem solving, which is definitely what I do in my job!"

"My team look at the pipes, equipment and kit that supply gas to the homes of our customers and look to estimate when they will need replacing before they fail. This is an important role because if they fail, customers could either lose gas to their home (which would mean they wouldn't be able to cook or have a bath or shower) or there could be a gas explosion and buildings could be damaged or in the worst case people could get hurt. We calculate how much the replacement of the pipes and equipment will cost and we make sure that we are not spending too much money, so that this keeps the cost of gas bills low. We also look at how we can put new pipes in the ground to supply gas to homes that don't currently have it, this is important as it's more expensive to heat your home using electricity rather than gas.We also look at what we need to do in the future to make sure that we are doing the best for the environment. This involves looking into whether we could use greener gas sources such as hydrogen to meet our country's carbon targets.The thing I love about my job is that no day is the same. There is a lot of variety and a new problem to solve. Not only do we have to think about how we spend our money on the pipes and kit, but we also have to think about computer equipment, our vans and our people. There is a lot of new challenges impacting the gas companies such as new environmental targets, and how we meet these is an exciting challenge with lots of opportunities to learn new things."

"I always knew I liked Maths, but I did not know what job I wanted to do, so after leaving school I studied Mathematics and Statistics, Business Studies and English Literature for my A Levels. I then did a Business Studies degree as I was unsure where studying maths further would get me. After leaving university I was still unsure of what I wanted to do, so I applied for a job at a local consultancy company. That company helped water companies to estimate when their pipes would fail so that they could make sure that they replaced the pipes before they failed and impacted customers. It turned out I loved it! At the same company I worked on projects that looked at bridges, electricity, gas and roads, helping all these companies to look at where to spend money to make sure that their asset didn't fail. After several years there, I then went to work for Yorkshire Water before moving to Northern Gas Networks.What inspired me is that I can apply maths to solve real life problems where you can see that you are having a positive impact. I loved helping to make sure that customers bills were as low as possible, but making sure that their gas/water/roads were always there. The maths that we use is starting to be applied to other areas and is focusing more on customers and the environment rather than just the pipes/kit which is very exciting."

"In my spare time I love to go running, cycling or do HIIT(high intensity training) workouts. I have also just started to do Hot Pod yoga and even though I lack balance I really enjoy it. I also love dogs and if I want to relax I go for long walks in the country side with my west highland terrier.I've always liked to read, even when I was very young. My favourite book is To Kill a Mockingbird which I first read at school. Even though I don't get much chance to read, I try to read at least 10 books a year.I love to bake even though I don't have a sweet tooth. I like to try and make pretty cupcakes, but I don't think you will be seeing me on the Great British Bake Off any time soon as I can't make bread!"

"My usual day is to go to the office and work on my computer. My day can vary from being in meetings, answering phone calls, replying to emails, reading or writing documents or doing analysis using maths in spreadsheets. I sometimes have to do presentations to either managers in the business or to other companies such as other gas companies or ofgem. This year, my days have been very busy as we are working on a 5 year plan. I have spent my time working on different projects for several weeks at a time but they have a start and end point. Some of this work has meant going to speak to customers about where they want to see us spend our money and what things they want us to deliver e.g. more electric cars. This has then meant feeding this back into our plan to make sure that what we are planning to do is acceptable."

"A level Mathematics and StatisticsA level Business StudiesA level English LiteratureDegree - BA Business StudiesCertificate in Asset Management at the Institute of Asset Management (studied in role)"