I have to admit, I never planned for a “career”. I knew what I wanted to do (teach) and in that field, options are somewhat limited. You can become Head of Year or Head teacher but none of that really appealed to me.

I worked as a teacher for a number of years (teaching English to asylum seekers and refugees) before moving to Canada. In Canada, I worked as a Homestay Administrator – finding families to house International Students. I really loved the job but that too was not a conscious “career” move. I was asked to help out for a day by a friend who managed the department, so I did but they ended up offering me the job on the same day. So a day became 2.5 years!

When I came back to the UK, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do but I did know I wanted to do “something” with people. I was approached by a recruiter about a job at Lifeplus and to be honest, at first I thought it was a scam. It just sounded too good to be true. A really friendly company, a very decent starter salary,  an opportunity to earn more money when you pass internal skill gates, and a role in a growing Dutch team. I did a telephone interview and was then invited for a face to face.

When I first walked into the contact centre the way it used to be, I didn’t know what hit me! It was so much bigger than I expected! But just by walking around and getting a feel of the place, I knew this was somewhere I’d like to work. I did the face to face interview and on the way home I got the call offering me the job as a Customer Care Administrator for the Dutch team. Which I, of course, accepted.

I had never worked in a contact centre before but I was (and still am) very passionate about excellent customer service and making people feel heard. It was a steep learning curve with all the applications Lifeplus uses but I had a fantastically supportive team and soon my typing speed improved and I was working with two screens and three foxpros like a boss. I really liked working as a Customer Care Administrator and wasn’t really thinking about advancing my career at Lifeplus further than that. I thought that there wouldn’t be much room for growth anyway because I thought that as a Customer Care Administrator,  you could only move onto being a Senior and then a Team Leader but the Dutch team had two very established people in those positions. And although I do speak some German, it was nowhere near good enough to be a German Senior or Team Leader. So, I continued to work as a Customer Care Administrator for a little over a year.

Then, a new role was created that really grabbed my interest. Senior Leadership Team coordinator. When I read the description, it sounded as if it had been written for me. Work with people? Tick. Multitask? Tick. Have plenty of initiative? Tick. Work independently? Tick. Make sure everything goes smoothly? Tick! Tick! Tick!

I applied, I interviewed and got the role. Something I never could have envisioned when I started at Lifeplus! The Senior Team were incredibly welcoming and very supportive and they really helped me find my feet. The role was incredibly varied and just as busy as I had imagined it. Once again, I figured, this is the role I’ll be doing for years and years and years – I’ll never get bored of this!

However…..two years later, the Continuous Improvement Team was created and as part of my role as coordinator, I started working with them on initiatives and such. Slowly but surely, I started to realise that the part of the coordinator role I really enjoyed, were the things that Continuous Improvement does all the time. Improving things, helping people out, making things easier but, I knew that the team was full and they wouldn’t be hiring so I was happy to work with them when I could.

Then, last year (and 4 years into my role as coordinator), a role was advertised within the team and I knew I had to apply. So I did. And I got the role. And now I am a Continuous Improvement Analyst.

If anyone had told me 6 years ago that this is where I would end up, I would not have believed it. Moreover, I wouldn’t have known what a Continuous Improvement Analyst does! Of all the ideas I had when I was growing up, I had never envisioned myself doing what I do now. And I absolutely have Lifeplus to thank for that. It’s been a very, very interesting 6 years and looking back, I seem to have “fallen” into a career without realising it!

I joined Lifeplus as a Customer care agent nearly 6 years ago in the Rest of Europe department, the role was varied as I had a chance to work with several growing markets which enabled me to be in contact with different team members, cultures, and learn different ways of working which was very interesting.
My Team Leader supported me through the application for my next role, which was greatly appreciated.

After nine months in customer service, I decided to apply for a role in the Planning & Development team, and although I did not have much previous technical experience in the role, I was selected as I matched in several other areas and skills such as writing and critical/analytical thinking, so I embarked in the role of “Scheduling Administrator”.

This turned out to be a wonderful opportunity to develop and am very grateful to Lifeplus for this; after 4 years I learned many resource planning techniques and software and started working as a project coordinator.

In 2019 Lifeplus also paid for me to get certified in project management, and I’ve used that knowledge to successfully lead the implementation and rollout of our new Workforce management system Verint™ and honing stakeholder management skills.

Fast forward to Autumn last year, I interviewed for the role of “Resource planning analyst”, and I now fill that role in my team; I learned several new skills and have increased responsibility within my department, in managing short term forecasts, capacity analysis, and new scheduling initiatives within our workforce management system.

I have been fortunate enough to be able to progress with my HR career, working for some amazing companies that have given me a great experience and foundation knowledge of all areas of HR since I graduated at University in 2011.

Building knowledge and experience over the years has been essential for me to put my degree and post graduate qualifications into practice. I started with Lifeplus in May 2015 as a HR co-ordinator in a small team, so I was able to really learn and develop into my current Senior HR Advisor role which I started in 2016.

I love working, supporting and developing people so HR is my perfect career.