Claire Woolsey never planned to become an accountant. She studied geography, history and politics at A-level, spent her university summers as a lifeguard, a home help and an electoral canvasser, and arrived at Queen's University with half a mind to become a lawyer. Yet today, as Senior Manager of Financial Planning and Regulation at NIE Networks, she leads a team of eight, manages financial forecasts stretching ten years into the future, and oversees regulatory negotiations that shape energy bills across Northern Ireland.
Her message to anyone who doesn't yet have their career mapped out is straightforward: follow what you enjoy, and trust that the skills will travel.
Long before she was forecasting billion-pound infrastructure investment programmes, Claire was restocking shelves in her local village bakery for £2 an hour. She went on to be a lifeguard at the local pool, visit elderly residents as a home help, and knock on hundreds of doors as an electoral canvasser. None of those jobs pointed obviously towards a career in finance, but each one built something that has proved invaluable.
"One of the core skills you need in my role today is people skills," Claire explains. "We work as a team. I don't have all the answers, but together as a team we'll always figure it out." That instinct carried her through a joint law and accountancy degree at Queen's, a year studying in the United States, and a demanding training contract at EY, where she balanced full-time audit work with Saturday classes.
The move to NIE Networks came through what many would consider a risk: leaving a permanent job for a temporary maternity cover contract. Claire weighed it up, decided NIE's reputation made it worth the gamble, and took the leap. Within six months, she was made permanent. That was 20 years ago.
What she found at NIE was an organisation that has continued to evolve around her. Across two decades, she has held a range of finance roles, taken maternity leaves, and returned via a job share at a time when that was still relatively unusual. The flexibility, she says, made all the difference: "That support allowed me to stick with my career, because I never wanted to leave the workplace. But sometimes you do need that support to get you through."
Ask Claire what financial planning actually involves, and the answer might surprise you. Yes, there are spreadsheets. Yes, there are forecasts stretching a decade or more. But the job, she says, is fundamentally about communication. "The numbers mean nothing. It's the story behind the numbers - what they tell us about our business and where we want to drive in terms of the future." Claire never studied maths at A-level. She didn't need to. What she needed was analytical curiosity and the willingness to ask what the numbers actually mean.
Two decades in, what Claire values most isn't the complexity of the regulatory work or the scale of the investment programmes. It's her team. "It's a privilege to lead the bunch of people I lead. Life is too short not to be happy in your work and to feel respected in your job." That sense of responsibility sits naturally within an organisation holding a triple Investors in People accreditation - the only company in the UK to have achieved it.
NIE Networks exists to deliver a sustainable energy system for all of Northern Ireland, and for Claire, that mission is personal. "That's something I can subscribe to in a heartbeat. The values of NIE Networks align with my personal values, so it's very easy to fit in."
Her advice to her 16-year-old self echoes everything she has learned: follow your passion, embrace the hard moments, and when an opportunity comes by, grasp it with both hands. For parents, teachers and young people thinking about careers in energy, finance or leadership, Claire's story makes one thing clear. You don't need to have it all figured out. You just need to stay curious, keep turning up, and be willing to take the occasional leap of faith.
Watch the full episode: https://youtu.be/n06ehsQF-MM
