Learn more about life at Dechra

During my first job as a basic swimming tutor I realized that I wanted a job that could take me to new places and allow me to travel more. I ventured into tutoring courses and found that the more courses I taught at different venues, the more different types of courses I wanted to be able to provide. I yearned for a wider audience and I eventually found myself travelling across the country and beyond to deliver First aid, Lifeguarding, Pool Plant operations and other courses to a high level. Although this job was very exciting and gave me some surprising experiences, I needed a stable income. I eventually found Dechra, where I could work full time and spend the weekend continuing to teach courses.

There is a lot of variety in my current position as my role not only includes the operation of the manufacturing machines, but the cleaning and upkeep of them too. I work with a variety of different machines that produce different products, so no day is the same. This role is much more engaging for me as I like the challenge of doing something different everyday.

I have always had a soft-spot for pretty much any animal, and its nice to know that what we're doing is helping somebodies furry (or not so furry) friend. Every time I see a new product being trialed ready for manufacturing, I get a little more proud of the work that we do here. On top of that I love that this role doesn't take over my whole life and I can have a good amount of work-life balance. I have previously described myself as very adventurous and this balance allows me to still go out on adventures and experience new things.

When I first started my journey with Dechra, I didn't expect to get to where I am now. This industry was a completely new world to me and if I am honest, to begin with I felt out of my depth. However, I soon adapted and started to make further progress within the company, allowing me to develop a deeper understanding about the work that is going on across the site. When people ask me what I see myself doing in 5 years time, I can't always give a straight answer as I've picked up a lot of interchangeable skills along the way which has meant that I can put my hand to nearly anything I set my mind to. There is a wide variety of roles here at Dechra, fitting for lots of different types of people.

I had an amazing opportunity to travel to Germany with the product development team in order to look at a new machine we were due to have delivered on site. My mission was to learn how the machines run in order to collate the information into an understandable document ready for use. We only had a week to get to grips with this machine and we managed to learn a whole lot about it in such a short amount of time. Once back on site, we ensured everything was in place for the new product and that there was a seamless transition when the machine arrived . It has been a long journey since seeing it for the first time in the engineering factory but it now has its own home in our packing department. When I see the product that this machine makes I feel a sense of pride as I had a big hand in helping make sure that this products trial stage went smoothly.