Careers…
Careers…We have access to careers advisors from our early teens, who make us fill out random lifestyle profiling forms; which then tell us that we are destined to be a tea-pot sculptor, a landlord, or deputy health minister. We’re forced to make decisions at a very naïve 15 years old, to choose what subjects we will take forward to GCSE, which will ultimately shape our future…Of course, like most plans, they never go as…planned.
I left University after the first year, as it was a young course that hadn’t found its feet; I didn’t get what I was predicted for A-Level, so didn’t get onto the course I picked a year before; and wasn’t being stretched, so went into work…
My first role was an Outbound one, selling personal loans to customers for a major bank, pretty much cold calling. It was awful, and I lasted 10 months. I then went to work for a mobile service provider, as Inbound sales, and then moved onto Broadband sales. After a year, I took redundancy, 1 month before everyone lost their jobs as the work went to India. I then got a job as a driver for a mobile operator, on their network optimisation team, and when my engineer left, I took that role. This was a contract, however, and as good as it paid, it had to end at some time. It was then that I realised I wanted job security…
It was a local paper where I first saw the advert for O2; Inbound Business Customer Services. It was the usual process, telephone interview, then assessment day. All went very smoothly, and I was offered the position.
It was the atmosphere that first struck me when I arrived, and took my first walk round the Operation. Very relaxed, and trustworthy, it felt. People were left to do the job they were paid to do. Pretty soon I was enjoying this modern approach to working.
I applied for a role on Real Time Planning after a year, as I’d had a short secondment in my second job shadowing the MI Analyst, so had a rough idea of basic stat manipulation and call centre performance concepts and KPI’s. I was successful, and threw myself into my work. I had some excellent mentoring from both direct and indirect managers within the wider Planning team, who were more than willing to nurture my enthusiasm and talents, and hone them in.
I applied for my current position a year ago today. It was a brand new role within O2, and with it carried huge responsibilities, and an amount of pressure. I would be managing analysts, be responsible for the Outbound departments performance, and be the required to come up with fresh new idea’s on how we can push things forward, and utilise the Dialler for the benefit of the business.
- Dale