29 March 2022
Within a week of leaving college, Aaron Dhanoa secured his first job as a customer service advisor at FirstPort. Three years on and he’s the Property Manager for nine developments in south London.
Aaron, who admits he “never thought of property management as a career path until coming across FirstPort”, has since become a passionate advocate of property services, and worked his way up to become a Property Manager.
Why FirstPort?
In 2019, Aaron left college wanting to enter a career in the housing sector. He was quickly introduced to FirstPort and began a job in the customer services department. He says the role gave him many transferable skills, adding:
“There’s so much you learn, and seeing the resolution and the customer happy is obviously the best thing.”
While working in customer service, Aaron says he was surrounded by a strong support system who frequently advocated for him to take advantage of new career opportunities within the company. He explained:
“I think people my age coming from college or coming from university, maybe they don’t really know where their heads are at. I do think it’s good coming into a company like this because you do learn a lot.
When I first left school, obviously, I knew how to deal with people, but this job allows you to progress and build your skills. You’re dealing with people, gaining customer service skills in general, problem-solving skills.
You might not realise that you’re picking things up, but you are, and these snippets of knowledge do come in handy in the future as you progress in your career.”
Career progression
It wasn’t long before Aaron took on a senior customer service role, which was focussed on dealing with urgent and specialist responses to customer enquiries. It was here that he gained the crucial experience needed to become a Property Manager.
Aaron said:
“We would deal with all of the major issues such as leaks, any gates or lifts that are out of action, and we will have to take ownership of the problems and deal with them working with the Property Managers. I think that’s where I got my insight as to what a Property Manager does, and I learnt lots about the job role.
I was reporting to about seven Property Managers and that was a lot of sites and every day there will be another challenge coming through. But it allowed me to become who I am to enter my current role.”
“You’ve got to be patient you have got to persevere. You have got to think outside the box, and you have to find these other routes to fix the solution.”
Aaron says his “proudest achievement to date” is becoming a Property Manager at FirstPort. The job involves the daily management of nine sites across south London.
His advice for people wanting to start a career in property management is to never shy away from asking for help and always speak up about where you want your career to take you. He added:
“I say, ‘guys can someone give me some help and give me some advice’, there will always be someone there so always speak up if you’re struggling.
I’d also advise that you take on board everything because you never know when it will come in handy.
The more knowledge you know, the more you can apply it to the job.”
What’s next?
Aaron says he’s not stopping there, adding:
“I think in the next few years, there’s a lot going on in the company and we were only growing as a business, which is another reason why I’m glad I stayed with FirstPort.
Now the company is growing as a business and there’s so many other job opportunities coming up, I feel like I’m happy where I am now. Obviously, in the next few years, I would like to progress.
I wouldn’t mind looking towards like Regional Manager, managing Property Managers across a portfolio because I feel like the next few years, I will have the knowledge and skills in order to achieve this. In the meantime, I will continue to work hard as I can.
You know, I’m still young and there is so much I can learn, and I have a chance to do that at FirstPort. I really am excited for what the future will bring.”
