Meet Olivia

Hey, I’m Olivia and I am a Land Graduate in Cala’s West of Scotland region. I studied Geography, Society and Environment at Heriot-Watt Uni in Edinburgh. As part of the land team, my role involves finding the right sites for Cala to develop.

I was attracted to my role at Cala for numerous reasons. Firstly, I was aware that Cala was a high performing business within the industry and held a strong reputation as a housebuilder. My background in Geography stemmed my attraction to land and property as a role within Cala, as I held knowledge and interest in the built and natural environment and wanted to help work towards achieving more sustainable homes and places. I was extremely interested in learning about the whole house build process and seeing a project from start to finish – starting with land and taking it through to sales.

No day is the same at Cala, which makes it more interesting! Typically, I spend my days in the office working alongside other members of the land team and colleagues from other teams, such as technical, commercial and sales on various projects. I also spend time searching for new sites and opportunities for future land, which can involve going out and looking at new sites. This hybrid approach works well and makes the week more diverse.

I think the graduate development programme will really benefit me in my future career, especially because of the time spent in the two rotations working in a different team and working on new projects which I wouldn’t normally have as much involvement in. The rotations will allow me to create strong relationships with people from other departments, strengthening my network, developing new skills, as well as understanding different aspects of the business for an overall greater perception of Cala, as a whole.

I aspire to continue to keep learning as much as possible whilst at Cala, through my team and others around me and extend my knowledge by studying a Masters once I have finished the graduate programme, which Cala will support me with. In the long term, I hope to excel my career at Cala and get to the stage where I will be buying/bidding for land in which we will build sustainable homes for the future. Most importantly, I hope to still be enjoying myself at Cala. 

The culture at Cala is extremely warm and welcoming. From day one, I have been made to feel included in the team, office and the work I am involved in. Cala are a very people orientated business who care for their customers and employees. This allows me to meet my work life balance aspirations comfortably when speaking to my manager, who is extremely understanding and supportive of this working aspect.