I joined the Plymouth office as an apprentice in April 2016. I had heard of HM Land Registry but didn’t really know what it did, so I undertook a bit of research and liked the sound of what I read. As part of my apprenticeship, I'm studying for a level three BTEC qualification in Business Administration and I'm enjoying it because it’s quite different to the courses I've done before. It's giving me a much better understanding of how businesses operate and I enjoy learning whilst I work.
In October last year, an opportunity arose for an intranet content writer. A project team was developing a new intranet for the organisation (an internal-facing website used for communicating with staff) and they needed somebody to help with content migration. This consists of collating and editing existing information from the old intranet site and publishing it to the new one. The old intranet site is several years old and has become difficult to navigate as more and more pages have been added over the years. The new intranet has been designed with simplicity and accessibility in mind and editors can add and remove content easily to keep everything up-to-date.
A content writer opportunity sounded absolutely perfect for me – I've got a passion for design, writing and anything IT so I applied straight away. I was very excited to be accepted and took up my new role in November. The first week or two was like being in a new job all over again! I was the only person in Plymouth who was working on content so I travelled to Croydon where I met people who were involved in the digital and communications side of HM Land Registry. I had never appreciated how varied and vast HM Land Registry is – there's so much more to it than casework.
Back in Plymouth, I got to work publishing content on the new site. The project team work with all areas of HM Land Registry to help them update and publish their information on the intranet. As we add content to the new site, we carry out user testing to see how people navigate the site and if there's anything we can improve on.
When I started my job here, I thought that my skills in IT and writing would have to stay as hobbies, but I was (happily) proved wrong. I feel like I've been given the chance to use my talent and work on something I'm passionate about. Not only do I feel like I've gained a huge amount of knowledge about land law and casework (which has been invaluable when buying my first house in November last year), I've been able to bring other skills to the organisation too.