How I became an Area Manager
I started my career in the telecoms industry with BT back in 1999, as an Assistant Branch Manager at the Northumberland Street store in Newcastle upon Tyne. In 2001 I was given the opportunity as Acting Manager of the store due to the Manager taking maternity leave.In 2003, after O2 brought BT Cellnet, I gained a promotion to Branch Manager of the Stockton-on-Tees store. From there I moved to the Hartlepool store in early 2004 and then onto the Gateshead Galleria store in the Metro Centre in late 2004. In late 2005 I became the Branch Manager of O2’s flagship 300th store in Eldon Square, Newcastle upon Tyne. In the first Quarter of the store opening we finished top of the company sales league and also won a Customer Experience incentive, resulting in a fantastic team day out ‘power-kiting’ and surfing! And what an experience it was! Soon after the store opening I also successfully gained promotion to ‘Senior Branch Manager’ level within the business.
In 2007, I was looking for new challenges, having been in the Senior Branch Manager position for nearly 2 years and having acquired a lot of new skillsets. I took on a 6 month secondment as a Project Manager. I thoroughly enjoyed the secondment and it whetted my appetite to try different things within the business. After that secondment I took over as Manager of the Gateshead Team Valley store. 6 months later, in the latter half of 2008, I took on another Project Manager secondment, putting the extensive knowledge and experience that I had built up in my previous secondment to good use. This secondment involved training and leading the activities of a team of 24 Retail Champions. After this secondment ended, in January 2009, I became the Manager of the North Shields store.
So, I’ve had quite a journey with the company over the past 10 years! I’ve managed a total of 7 Retail stores and have had 2 x 6 month secondment periods. When the opportunity for Retail Area Manager position came up I jumped at the chance as it was something that I had wanted to do for some time. With my experience as a Senior Branch Manager, and with two separate secondment periods, I had a lot of work-based examples of leadership and people management to take into the assessment centre.
The assessment day took place in early March 2009 and it was rigorous to say the least! It involved a full day consisting of 5 activities: an interview, a 1:1 meeting with a ‘store manager’ (played by an actor!), a presentation, a written exercise and a group exercise - we were certainly put through our paces on the day!
Thankfully I was successful at the assessment centre and I was notified of my success by Retail’s Head of Sales, Jay, in late March 2009. I believe that my work history within the business is testament to the succession planning that goes on within O2 and of the company’s fantastic internal training programmes and development of its people. The training courses I attended in preparation for becoming an Area Manager were fantastic and I thoroughly enjoyed them. I learned a lot and have taken these newly acquired skills and knowledge into the Area Manager role, which I started in July 2009. I’m now getting used to the new role and the demands of the job and, I have to say, I’m loving every minute of it! 
Paul
Area Manager