Latest / Built by People / How a Failed A-level Led to Over 20 Years in Lighting and a Successful Career
Transcript
- speaker-0: Meet Bradley. Bradley is one of our second year Lampe Academy students, if we call him that. ⁓ He's come up with a great idea that directors should get interviewed. So Bradley, over to you. What do you want to know about DFL, me or anything? speaker-1: I want to know about you, Rich. I want to know sort of where you come from, how you got into lighting, and how long you've been in lighting for. speaker-0: What a question. So there's a really sad fact straight off the back of that first question, how long have I been in lighting? I worked out the other day, I've been in lighting for over half of my life now. How sad is that? So for context, I was 40 last year. I started in the lighting industry if you like when I was about 16 or 17. I'm always quite happy to talk about this because I feel I have a different route into the industry. But I was at school learning academically, really struggled at school from an academic learning perspective. I did one year of A levels and got really terrible results. And my head of year was persuading me that we could turn it around in year two. And I took the brave decision to say, I really don't think we're going to turn this around in year two. So I left college after my first year. I went home and told my parents, I was out of quick college and they were like, you have done what? And I sat down and said to them, I'm really struggling, but if I didn't leave, I would always be surrounded by this comfort blanket of education that wouldn't let me progress. So I then turned my part-time job in the local supermarket to a full-time job, which there's no disrespect to anyone doing anything like that, but my parents had higher aspirations for me and they were like, you can't do that all your life. And my mantra was, If that then doesn't become the catalyst for me to achieve something, then at least I've got a secure income coming in. Fast forward two days after that, I went to what is an old school connections career center. You guys wouldn't have any clue what a connections career center is, but it was a government backed scheme that helped people get into careers and stuff like that. And I picked up an electrical apprenticeship for a sports flight and floodlighting company. So I joined them, went through the tools as we call it, installing floodlights, building floodlights and all that type of stuff. And then from there, ⁓ Went in the few wrong directions, took a few wrong career moves that I reckon we should probably talk about on a different podcast, because I'll be here hours talking about it. Made some mistakes along the way, but ended up at a company called Atkins. It's a large multidisciplinary. And I came out of the tools and joined into the design office as a technician, much like yourself. And worked my way up. I spent four years there and saw a job here at DFL as an engineer. Applied for that. of 2012, 2013, I think. And as they say, the rest is history from there. Yeah, I've been, so that's 14 years I've been here. So 40 year old, 22 years in the lighting industry. that's my whistle stop route into lighting. Do you mind me asking, how did you get into lighting? I know obviously you joined DFL and stuff like that, but where did it all start for you? College, uni and stuff like that. What path did you take? speaker-1: Uni was an interesting one. I've always been sort of academically inclined, but never really applied myself to education. I kind of cruised through GCSEs, cruised through A levels. Didn't really know what I wanted to do. So I went to university and I've always said I wanted to be a corporate lawyer. So how I've ended up here is a bit of a... speaker-0: You're in a much better place. speaker-1: But I initially went to ⁓ Brighton University to do law. I ended up dropping out of that because I became ill. So I was ill for a few months and couldn't go, couldn't attend my lectures. ⁓ I then ended up in the marine trade, which is where I came from when I joined here. But I'd done that for a summer. I then went back to university. I'd done a year there. decided I didn't like it. And I was doing history at Chichester at that point. ⁓ That wasn't for me. Then went ⁓ back into the Marine trade. Done a couple of years there. Then we had COVID and I decided I want to actually go and finish a degree. So I went back and done four years of uni. And then I sort of was just in and out of the Marine trade, just as part-time jobs. Picked it up full-time. And then I always wanted to look for a career where I could progress. ⁓ speaker-0: ⁓ okay. speaker-1: bit further than what I could in my previous role so I kind of fell into this one. speaker-0: No, no, no, everyone falls into line, so don't worry about that. Yeah. A couple of questions. And I know I've managed to turn the tables on you. yeah. But you're doing fine, so keep going. I'm really, we're not going to talk about lighting, but what, do you mind me asking, like, I saw COVID from my perspective, like through an educational perspective, how was that? How hard was that? it a root? Like, was great. speaker-1: It wasn't too bad. I sort of started in September 2020 with the education thing. So it was like, only just had the second and third lockdown for my ⁓ sort of first year. And then after that it was back to normal. yeah, I only really had a year of disruption. speaker-0: Yeah, because I see my disruption of two kids at home trying to manage a business like it was chaos and you often forget and I think that's part of why we want to do what we're doing with the podcast is that guys like yourself are coming into the industry and have had a lot of like social time curtailed through COVID and stuff like that so we just want to get the message out for you guys to you know just get involved see what's going on and stuff like that so moving into the career with DFL how's it been I want to say is that about a year 18 months you've been with us now? speaker-1: Not even a year yet. speaker-0: It's nine months. And I think that's testament to how well you've fitted into the business. You know, you're a great person to have. Yeah. How's it been? speaker-1: Busy. I think that's the word. That's going to come out. speaker-0: I know just before Christmas I look back on that and I think crikey we were so busy with clients and I just need it before Christmas. You guys did an amazing job together. Is it slowed down a bit now? I'll speak with Andy we'll take that on board and we can make sure that we look after you guys because I think that that is one of the biggest trick. speaker-1: It's the start of the year either. It's starting to. speaker-0: tricks if you like that we struggle within the business is that clients want everything now. Yeah. And it's working out how urgent is urgent and who not that you want favorite clients, but we really want to work with clients that want to work with us and understand that we're people at the end of the day and the pressures and stuff like that. Rich. Back on to me. This is a bit of ping pong. speaker-1: So I have a question for you. You ducked out of it. So, but how did you go from being an engineer to where you are now? So you've gone from sort of on the engineering side of things to obviously in the other side of the office. So you're on sales. How did you go from engineering to sort of back end of the business? speaker-0: So it just kinda happened, if that makes sense. One of the common themes that we often talk about, and again, why we're looking at this podcast is that really great engineers just love to engineer solutions, be in systems, programs, formulas, working things out, and don't often communicate or get out and about and talk about what they do and so forth. back when I was at Atkins, one of my mentors in there said, you have that middle ground. And he wasn't rude with it, but he was like, you're not the best engineer. You're a good engineer, but you're not, ⁓ you when you talk about like. controversial, but like Elon Musk as an engineer in mind and stuff like that, they're deep thought engineers. I could engineer street lighting, but I had a really good rapport and ability to talk with clients and stuff like that. And very simplistically, you won't remember Ian, but Alistair and Ian and Andy to an extent could see that I could talk to people and started pushing me out the door a little more and saying, go and see this, go and do this. And it just evolved and we could spend hours talking about it, but over the transition of when Andy and I started to take on more responsibility and share ownership with the business. We sat down and spoke with each other and looked at the directions we wanted to go in. Andy's unbelievably technically minded. He's great for the business. You probably see more of Andy's input from a technical perspective. And they kind of agreed, well, Rich, you go out and win the work kind of thing. So I kind of fell into it. It's weird because I look back to... ⁓ I look back to the start of my career and what I saw is what my career had looked like. It doesn't look like anything I'm doing now, but I love it. I wouldn't change it for the world. again, one of the key things I'd say is don't feel like you have to know the way you want to go or know everything to make progress. Just get stuck in, just have a go, have conversations. And always, I'd like to think DFL have it as a mantra. Ask questions if you're unsure or struggling. or don't like or feel something's not right, just talk to us, it's like open door kind of thing. But yeah, there was no clear set plan. And I don't think anyone ever really truly has a clear set plan. They just, know, block by block, week by week go through and then start to forge a direction and career. Yeah. Does that side appeal to you or not? Absolutely. Does it? Yeah. Yeah, the external side of it. speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, the running the business side of it and like just looking at all the operations and sort of having a bit more of that control and like looking at direction and where the business can go. Which leads me to my next question. speaker-0: question. speaker-1: So you touched on it a little bit. Where do you see DFL going? What's your big picture? You're a big picture thinker. What would you like DFL to be in five years, 10 years? Where would you like it to be? What would you like people to think of when they think of DFL? speaker-0: There's a few questions there. It's dead simple in terms of what do I want people to think of when they think of DFL. is quality and thought leaders. Whenever someone wants something, we're a safe pair of hands that we deliver high quality work that meets the bar for either a planning application, 278 application. Now, I'm not saying we always get it right. Sometimes they're very hard to, know, the bar set is very high, but we'll never walk away from that bar. If we take on a project and we're working with our clients, That's what we want to deliver. Whenever anyone thinks of DFL, the quality element of it, that's from a professional perspective. But what I would say from a more lighthearted perspective, I want people to see DFL as fun. This is part of why we're doing this podcast as well. Like we all have to come to work to earn money, but there's nothing to say that we can't have fun along the way. And yes, this is a bit wacky. This is a bit weird and wonderful, but it's getting people talking. It's giving you this opportunity to have this conversation. It's getting the audience to see. what we're talking about this at the other. Where I think the business will be as a collective in five years time, that's really hard to answer going back to what I said earlier in terms of you don't truly know what's gonna happen. But what I would say is, you you'll be aware of some of the conversations that are going on around the business. I was afforded a very grateful opportunity from the previous directors to come in and be a part of this business. I don't want to be greedy with that. I don't know when the time will be, but I want to pass that on. I want us to build a business that goes through generations and continues to support the industry and so forth. So it's a bit woolly that answer. I don't know where it will go, but what I can say is it's not something I'm put my arms around and hoarding. I want to bring other people into this business and create opportunity because I know in an era where it was very much about going to university when I started my career. And in that early phase, I thought, I can't see where it's going to go to see where I am now. I'm incredibly grateful. And a big passion of mine is to pass that opportunity on. Nice. All right. Any more questions? I'm so proud of you. Good work, Adam. You all right? Yeah. That's it.