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No Plan, No Problem: How to Switch Careers and Still Succeed · Work It Like A Mum

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey, I'm Elizabeth Willits and I'm obsessed with helping as many women as possible achieve their boldest dreams after kids and helping you to navigate this messy and magical season of life.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: I'm a working mum with over 17 years of recruitment experience and I'm the founder of the Investing in Women job board and community.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: In this show, I'm honoured to be chatting with remarkable women redefining our working world across all areas of business.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: They'll share their secrets on how they've achieved extraordinary success after children, set boundaries and balance, the challenges they've faced and how they've overcome them to define their own versions of success.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Shy away from the real talk?
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: No way.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Money struggles, growth, loss, boundaries and balance we cover it all.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Think of this as coffee with your mates, mixed with an inspiring TED Talk sprinkled with the career advice you wish you'd really had at school.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: So grab a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, make sure you're cosy and get ready to get inspired and chase your boldest dreams, or just survive Mondays.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: This is the Work it Like A Mum podcast.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: This episode is brought to you by Investing in Women.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Investing in Women is a job board and recruitment agency helping you find your dream part-time or flexible job with the uk's most family-friendly and forward-thinking employers.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Their site can help you find a professional and rewarding job that works for you.
• 1:36
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• 1:43
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  Speaker 1: Search their website at investinginwomencouk to find your next part-time or flexible job opportunity.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Now back to the show.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Work it Like A Mum podcast.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Today I am chatting with Nicola Stevenson, who is a branch manager at Juicen in the Orkney Islands, and she's going to be telling me all about her role as a branch manager, what she does on a day-to-day basis, and we're also going to have a bit of a discussion as well about what it's like to live on an island as well, because I was asking you and I'm so curious and I'm sure that there'll be other people listening as well.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much, nicola, for joining me.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for inviting me.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: No, thank you.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: So you live on the Orkney Islands is that right?
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: I've been here since I was about nine.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: So what?
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: Just people?
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: You know their geography and mine was a little bit rusty before we obviously had a chat.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: Where is the Orkney Islands?
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: So it's in the very north of Scotland, just below Shetland, so between the mainland and Shetland.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: So you can get to the Shetland Isles as well, can you quite easily?
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, yeah, it's a long boat, but yeah, exactly, oh, wow, and how many people are live on the Orkney Islands?
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure what the actual statistic is at the moment, but it's roughly about 22,000 people, uh, thereabouts.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: So how many?
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, how many square miles?
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: That's small because, you know, when you think about the average town and, yeah, you know, it might be like two, three hundred thousand.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: So the yeah, there's a lot of people, a lot of people.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: Imagine that there's like 10 houses here and you know, I've heard all sorts oh, you live in igloos, like no, no, don't be ridiculous nicola definitely looks like she's in a proper house.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: Yes, I'm in a proper house, um, but no, it's just the same as anywhere else.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: It's the same as any sort of smaller villages in the mainland and things like that yeah, so um how many square miles is it?
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: oh god, no idea, no way.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: I'm not even gonna guess an answer for that it's.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: It's not big.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: You're talking to drive from one end to the other just over an hour, something, something along that lines.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm not gonna convert, do math and the house is quite spread out, then, or?
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: um, you've got your you know your main sort of towns and your a lot of villages, so you've got lots of clusters of houses, but yeah, there's a lot of kind of remote houses as well that are out in the middle of nowhere.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: Um, certainly as well a good mix, beautiful, and what I mean?
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: This is obviously digressing.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: It was like a farming hit.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: You know so a lot of farms and things like that there yeah, there's a huge uh farming community, um, farming and fishing industries, probably in a lot of the main stuff, but there's a good mix of stuff here as well.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: So there is a lot of job opportunities for people on the island for sure nice, I'm like I'm no.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: I said, oh, is there a hospital?
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: and you were like, yeah yeah, yeah, we have a hospital.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you were telling it to me yeah, yeah and you know what?
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: We're probably luckier than a lot of people on the mainland because we get the most fantastic care up here.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: Because, as a smaller place, there's not that same demands on the services, so we don't have the same waiting times up here for just the day-to-day stuff, but we also don't have the same specialist care.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: So if we do need, um, anything more specialized, we do need to go down to the mainland for that.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: But yeah, no, we're very lucky.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: I bet it's quite a night.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: Does everyone sort of know everybody?
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: yeah, not, not everybody knows everybody but, yeah, yeah, you see a lot of faces about, so you might not know them, but you know, you recognize the face and you know they're on the island because you see a lot of faces about.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: So you might not know them, but you know, you recognise the face and you know they're from the island because you see them about.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: But you know, just, you know working where I work.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: Yes, I know a lot of people.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I know who they are, just from where I work and where I've worked in the past.
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: So it's a nice thing.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: Not everybody likes it, but I like it.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, so you've told me through your career history so you, you finished school and then, and then what happened.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: It's quite varied um, I left school and went straight into banking, so I got a job in a bank and just on the island.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, um worked in a bank for about 12 years just kind of doing different roles, and I mean that was probably the best training I could have gotten for any role that I was doing, because they provided such excellent training.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: They done my customer service training because it was such a big thing what they did with customer service and really really pushing the customer service heavily to the point.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: It was checklists you go around in the morning and you wear your name badge, tick, things like that.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: So it was really customer service focused.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: But it was also really sales orientated.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: So you really got that training in the sales side of things and you know how to, how to sell um.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: But then they also did the management training and I did my mortgage exams as well.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, got a huge amount from that.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: So, without even realizing it, I had built a really good CV just from that one.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, one place, um and it's good they invested in you oh, absolutely, absolutely, um, there's not many companies that do that level of investment and training.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: I mean, I don't, I couldn't tell you.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: If it's the same now.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: It's obviously a long time ago, um, but yeah, it was a really good basis to to start a career from, for sure and then, so you left that.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: Why did you leave there then, um the last?
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: role I had with fame was a mortgage advisor and it was covering orkney, shetland and caithness.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah which just meant it was never home.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: Oh, okay, yeah, and you know it wasn't the most glamorous location, yeah, yeah, it's not like I was going somewhere hot and sunny every week.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: Um, so I did that role for probably a couple of years and I just thought I'm fed up traveling.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: I just, you know, I have a house and I'm never in it, I'm only in it for a weekend and I'm back out somewhere else.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: So it was really just that that kind of made me come away from it.
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: I probably would have stayed with the bank.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: It was a time where they were they were cutting back numbers, you know, everything was coming a bit more automated and things.
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: So there just wasn't, uh, there wasn't really anything that I could do, and so, well, it's time to go and explore some other avenues.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Really, so then you moved on, looking at your um, your form, so you moved to a whiskey distillery.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: Is that right?
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: yes, um, so yeah, worked for a couple of whiskey distilleries and fantastic jobs.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: So so much fun, really.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: Oh you just why?
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: Why were they so fun?
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: Oh, you just didn't know what you were going to be doing in a day.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: Um, you know, there was just one example as I went to work one day just a normal, what you thought was going to be a boring shift and I get a phone call from the Royal Navy to say that they're out in the bay and that I want to come out in the boat with them.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: Wow, yeah great.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: So I went and got my dad and he came with me and we were out playing on this Navy boat and I was like you know, you don't normally yeah, that's amazing yeah are sitting, I don't know, having fish and chips with um Prince Albert from Monaco.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, it's so varied, you don't.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: You didn't know what you were gonna do, so, yeah, it was a lot of fun, a lot of fun so what were you doing then in the distillery, then what was your role?
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: I was well, okay, it was two different roles.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: I worked at two different distilleries, so one was a what's called a visitor center supervisor, which was kind of like the manager of the visitor center, oh yeah, and that was the one role.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: And then the other distillery it was a retail manager for for them, oh right, yeah, yeah, recommend them, great fun yeah, so what made you move on then from whiskey?
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: oh, it was, um, I mean, I'd done it and, as fun as it is, how long can you do it?
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: For it's it was a smaller, smaller kind of operation, um, but you know, wanted to challenge myself a bit more and you know move on, so obviously.
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: But then went into the, the building industry, which, in a builder's merchant which you know, I knew what a nail was, I knew about wood was, but that really was as far as my expertise went.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, I got the role there and yeah, I think what's quite nice about your career is you've done something.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: It feels like you've done three very different things.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: You know the bank, and then the distillery and now at juicing, and you know what's the secret.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: Do you think to like changing careers and I don't know.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: Somebody asked me that when I said that I was doing this podcast and they were like so what was your plan?
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: I was like I've never, I never really had a plan.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: It just kind of went with it.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: How did you get each job?
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: Because there'll be a lot of people thinking you know, I'm doing something, I don't like it, I really want to do something else.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: And you've seen, yeah, you seem to have like done that.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, you know I mean most, not most, jobs, um, but you know, if you've got a solid, solid base on customer service, yeah, and sales, then you're, you're halfway to any any job.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: So, whether it's banking and you're I don't know selling loans and credit cards, going in a whiskey distillery, you're selling whiskey, and it's all the same thing.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: And then going at a builder's merchant, you're selling products and it's all that customer service.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: So as long as you're able to provide that, then it doesn't, it's all the same really but yeah, were you nervous in the interview because you said you didn't know, you knew what a nail was and that was about it were you nervous being quizzed about construction?
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: a building, and not really of course, um, but you know you.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: Just, I guess I was able to demonstrate, because I remember that being one of the questions and well, if you, you know, you don't know the products.
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: And I was like, well, you know, I know the very, very, very basics.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: I'm not entirely stupid, but no, I don't.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: I don't necessarily know what you do with all of them, but I'm a quick learner.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: I didn't know anything about banking and financial services.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: I didn't know anything about banking and financial services.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: I didn't know anything about whiskey when I started working there.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: I mean, one of the interview questions for the distillery was what's the three ingredients for um making whiskey?
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: and I was like, um, I don't know, I don't know, I wasn't saying hops, but I don't know if hops is beer.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: The third one I missed was water.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: I was like, yeah, yeah, would you say that?
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: Um, so you know, I learned all, all that I didn't know much about hospitality, but I learned it.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: So I was able just to say that in the interview and say well, you know, I've been able to pick all these things up and I would imagine this would be be the same.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: It would be a steep learning curve but you know I should be able to learn it, the same as other things I've done did you have that imposter syndrome when you started?
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: because a lot of people worry about this imposter syndrome and you know you could have had it in all right, you still have it absolutely every day I'm like they're, they're gonna realize, yeah, I have disguised myself for so long, but any day now they're gonna go.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: Oh no, she's actually terrible, but um, yeah, touch would have been there five years now.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: So how did you find the learning curve?
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: Because there's a, there's hundreds, I guess.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: With the whiskey, at least, there's just one product, whereas in juice and there's hundreds there's thousands.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: in my store alone there's there's thousands.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: Um, and I'm not going to pretend I know all of them.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: You know, some people come in and they'll ask me I'm like what and it's something you just don't get asked for.
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: All the day-to-day stuff, yeah, absolutely I know all that, it's no problem.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: But yeah, plumbing I've never pretended I understand plumbing.
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: I don't think I ever will.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: But the hardest thing with probably the builder's merchant side of things and the materials is they'll be sold to us called one thing.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: And that's on the shelf, it's on the computer, is that particular?
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: That's what it's called, but that's not what the customer will come in and ask you for, particularly the plumbing.
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: Some of them have got some interesting names for for plumbing like slang you mean, yeah and yeah, come in and ask for like a couple of nipples, and I'm like, are you taking the mick out of me or are you just watching, gonna laugh at me, going off trying to find something?
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: But know that, like the plumbing fittings, particularly some of them, have got some interesting names.
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: Of course that's not what it's called in the computer.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: You can't type that yeah, yeah, yeah, probably that's not, that's just like a slang, yeah but that's yeah so, and then different people will call it different things as well.
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: So yeah, it just makes it a little bit trickier, but it's good, because it's good fun.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: So what's the branch?
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: Did you start at Juiciness?
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: Branch manager yes.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so yeah, I went straight in at the deep end during lockdown.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: Oh OK.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: You've been busy because a lot of people are doing DIY and doing the house.
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a bit of a baptism of fire, but it was a good thing, because it probably got me going a lot, lot faster than normally.
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: I would have done yeah In that position, learning it.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's good, because it's good to know.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: Then you can apply for a branch manager role and you don't need to have worked in a building merchants before.
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: No, not necessarily.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: Just need to have the enthusiasm to pick it up and be willing to learn it.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah 100%.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: So what do you do then?
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: Like what's the branch manager do day to day?
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: Um, again, it can be varied.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: You're you're setting the, you know, in the morning you're setting the guys up.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: You're you're speaking to the team how many people are in your team?
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: um 17 in total.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: Oh gosh, yeah, a lot, yeah.
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: So you're, you're speaking to the team and you know setting up for the day.
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: Like what, what have we got on today?
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: Um, you're kind of making sure that the trucks have all been tested and they're okay for going on the road or a lot of time.
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: Oh no, something's broken down on the truck and you're trying to rearrange your then plan day.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: Um, you know speaking with customers, dealing with customers, um, you know giving them a phone saying have you got these deliveries coming out?
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: You need anything else brought out at the same time.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: Um, and yeah, just making sure that customer service.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: Of course you've got the paperwork side of things.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: You've got the health and safety, all the checks to do as well.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: Um, but yeah, it's good and you have different people.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: I guess that work for you that do different types of roles.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: Do you have like the drivers and yes, we have, um, we've got a kitchen and bathroom showroom.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: So there's two people in the kitchen and bathroom so they're the designers, so they look after that side of things.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: Um, we've got, uh, garlic does our admin side of things?
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: Um, we've got a couple of estimators as well.
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: So they do like the kind of bulk estimating.
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: So if you want a couple of lints of wood, you know one of the counter staff will do that.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: But the estimators are there for the people that are maybe building houses.
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: It's the big bulk orders and that affects the pricing, so they do all that sort of stuff.
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: Then, yeah, you've got the counter team that are just serving on the trade counter during the day.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: You've got the yard team and the yard drivers as well wow it's a good mix really good mix.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: What about you know, as the manager, how do you switch off?
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: Then can you go on holiday.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: Is you feel like you can switch off?
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: no, I'm not very good at that, I must admit.
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: I do want to go on holiday.
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: Yes, I always joke saying I love going abroad, I love the sun, yeah.
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: But I always joke at work and say, well, the reason I love to go abroad so much is because that's when I switch off.
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: Nobody phones me because you know I'm out of the country.
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, the time difference, the better they don't try to.
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: So that's my best time to entirely switch off.
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: Uh, but I am quite hands-on.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: So if I'm on holiday and I'm just at home or doing you know close by, I will.
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: I'm guilty of always picking up the phone when they phone me and trying to help.
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: She's like, oh, it's only just, it only takes me a minute to help them.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, that's something I could definitely be better at yeah, or just take more holidays abroad yeah, yeah, I know, I do know what you mean.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: I hope like, and you know, as somebody that works from home, I find it really hard to take a holiday and just be at home yeah, it's just that.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: It's just that temptation to put the laptop on for just quickly check.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: It'll be easier for when I go back.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I get that, um, and I guess are you doing like the staff rotas and things like that?
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: yeah, we do.
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: I mean, the the rota side of things isn't a complex everybody, everybody's full-time, or even the part-time people at set days, yeah, so the only real rota that we do is the Saturday rota, because we all take it in turns.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: So yeah, but so yeah, that it certainly is part of my role, but yeah, it's not something and is it just open saturday morning, or yeah, it's just a saturday morning 8 till 12, so it's most folk are fine, they're happy to do it and do you have like the same customers coming in or do you get to build relationships with certain customers?
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: yeah, uh, the majority of them are definitely the same customers coming in, uh.
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: So you do get to build really good relationships with them because you're seeing them at least once a day.
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, it's really good and you get a laugh and joke because you get that relationship there.
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: But you do have a mixture of your DIYers that you've never seen before coming in and things like that, yeah.
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, it's a nice mix.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: There's always new relationships to build and there's always people that are starting up as well.
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: So you know you've got joiners that are setting up their own business.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: They've got self-employed, so you might have seen them coming in with for their employer buying materials.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: But then that relationship changes because they are now.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: You know when they're doing that, they don't care what the cost is, they're just there to get it and go.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: But then when they start out self-employed and they're working it all out, then the relationship changes because you get to have those kind of more in-depth conversations and you know you want to be able to influence them, that they want to come to you, not just because they've been sent to you, um.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: So that's always nice as well when you see that and you see them sticking with you nice and did you get a lot of training with juice and then when you joined, because with the learning, the products and things um, I didn't um, and that's not by any stretch of the imagination and jason's fault.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: That was just because it was lockdown.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: Oh, okay, you were allowed to travel A lot of that stuff you would have normally travelled for and because obviously it all happened quite quickly and unexpectedly, this stuff wasn't, it wasn't available on Teams yet that all kind of developed in its place now.
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: But at that time there wasn't and to be honest it was just such a strange time a lot of people were still furloughed yeah.
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: So no, I kind of had to do it the hard way a lot of it.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: But you know, I've had training and things for different things since on teams, but not so much the product side of things yeah, and what's Juicen like to work for generally?
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: yeah, it's.
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: They're a really, really good company.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: I can hand on heart say that, uh and I was saying that to my dad just the other day I think it's possibly the best company I've ever worked for, and you were glowing about your previous employer.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: They were great fun, but in terms of actual being looked after as an individual and doing the best for their people if that makes sense, if you take away the training side of things, and whether you like the job or not, if you just look at how they treat their staff, I really think they probably are the best one, certainly one of the best, but I think they could be the best company of from that side.
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: You know, I seen how they treated staff during lockdown, yeah, um, and how they looked after their staff during that that time.
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: And I know a lot of people that were working in other companies and some of the companies I used to work for, and they didn't get treated like that.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: They were dispensable and they didn't care.
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: They're like, oh well, and but Doosan's looked at it, I mean, and remember when I got offered the job, it was the day the schools were all announced to close.
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: Oh okay, yeah.
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: I don't suppose many people were offered the job.
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: It was the day the schools were all announced to close.
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: Oh okay, yeah.
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: I don't suppose many people were offered a job that day.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: But, um, the the guy that phoned me and offered me that job basically said the job is is definitely yours.
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but we've just put a lot of staff on furlough, like the hr staff, all the admin staff, that type of things that would be doing the contracts.
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: So, although the job's yours, we don't know when you're you're gonna be able to start.
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: And I was like, well, yeah, no, that's fine, I still want to accept the job.
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: I'll just need to figure something out in between.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: And he genuinely stopped and said but will you be okay for that length of time?
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: Because if you're not, I can.
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: I can try and look at something, I can try and come up with something.
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: I don't think he had an answer at that point of time.
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but he was genuinely checking that.
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: I know I'm telling you you can't start.
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: Are you going to be okay for money?
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I was like no, it's, it's fine, I'll, I'll sort something out in between.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: It's absolutely fine.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: But yeah, not many people, places would do that.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: They would say, well, there's the offer, it's up to you.
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: If not, I'll offer it to someone else.
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, so yeah, and you didn't owe me anything at that point, I didn't know you.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, oh, what are the benefits do you get remind people?
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: What are the benefits you you get remind people.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: What are the benefits you get them working for gsm the benefits oh gosh, um, so you mean you've got all your usual sort of pension benefits and things like that and cycle to work schemes.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: Uh, there's benefits there for, um, buying cars, like salary sacrifices on your car, things like that, um, but you also get.
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: You get a great discount on your products.
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: Um, certainly for me.
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: I've just put on your house this year, that is, I've been renovating and gutting the whole house.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: I think I'm probably going to put a plaque up saying sponsored by juicing kitchens, bathrooms, flooring, everything you know to sit and look around my house.
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: There's very little that I've had to go and buy somewhere else.
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: It's been fantastic, yeah, yeah, yeah, but it's been great yeah, yeah, really good point.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: And where?
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: So your vacancies, I think, are on?
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: Um, well, they're definitely on the Stark website, and I don't know if there's a Juicen website as well.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: But if someone's listening to this and is considering a career with Juicen, you know what would you say to them?
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: And it's so nice to chat with you and realise you don't need to have that building or construction experience you don't.
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: I would say just absolutely, go for it.
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: Do you know what?
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: If you don't enjoy it, you don't enjoy it.
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: It's not going to be the end of the world, um, but if you think that's something you would want to be involved in, absolutely go.
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: Go into the branch, go speak to whoever the branch managers are in.
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: You don't.
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: You don't have to do it formally, you don't have to be applying for roles through the website.
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: Go in and speak to them, have a chat, a chat about the different roles because, as we just talked about, like my branch alone has so many different roles and you need to have had experience.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: You know, like you talked about the kitchen, bathroom, or there was the estimate oh, not at all.
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: Um, most of the people I've hired for the kitchen and bathroom haven't had design experience.
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: They just got to be a willingness to learn.
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: We'll, we'll train people, you know.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: Just I'll train you to use that design software.
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: You just have to have that interest in it.
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: Everything can be simplified down for you to learn it.
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: So no, don't, there's, there isn't other than you know, being a driver, you do need a driver's license, obviously yeah um, but anything out with that, you don't.
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: You don't need formal qualifications, it's all just a willingness to learn yeah yeah, you know it.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: Just you know you're.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: If you've been a manager before, there's not no reason you can't be a manager of a builder uh, builder's merchant at all brilliant and um and I know you've so mentioned I don't know um you've got full and part-time staff as well, haven't you so?
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: There's opportunities for everybody.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think what's nice is I've got a juice in literally around the corner Do you.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so you can have quite a local job.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: I guess you know.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: If you live near a juice, in then yes, absolutely, Absolutely.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: You know there's so many branches they really are everywhere but it's it's a great, a great rewarding place to be and you know you get such a laugh.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: It's not like a very formal, stuffy environment that you're very professional with your customers, like they won't cheek, they'll come in and give you absolute pelters, but they want it back.
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, sometimes when I'm sitting in the office and I can hear what's being said at the counter and you're just like god, you just wouldn't hear that in a, in a bank or in a hostess distillery, like the things that they'll call the customers, the customers are laughing and joking and giving it back as well.
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: So it's, it's nice and relaxed in that sense yeah, yeah, brilliant.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: Well, thank you so much, nicola, for joining me today I know you've got a linkedin profile, you're all right if we put a link to your linkedin profile and then if someone's got any questions they can connect with you through that, yeah, we'll put the juice in and start links in the show notes.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: But really good tip from nicola that if you are interested in a career with juicing, just pop into your local branch and have a chat.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: Absolutely you never know where it may lead.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: So thank you so so much for joining me today thank you so much for having me thank you for listening to another episode of the Work it Like A Mum podcast.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: If you enjoyed this episode, please rate, review and subscribe.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: And don't forget to share the link with a friend.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: If you're on LinkedIn, please send me a connection request at Elizabeth Willett and let me know your thoughts on this week's episode.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: You can also follow my recruitment site Investing In Women on LinkedIn, facebook and Instagram.
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: Until next time, keep on chasing your biggest dreams.