your career

Karren

When I joined the company as a Vending Sales Representative, I wanted to develop to become a man-manager within a sales role.

I progressed through a variety of man management roles some of which were - Front Line - managing sales representatives who were also studying for a degree; Vending Sales Manager - where the focus is on motivating the team to find new business and Sales Manager Grocery - with a focus on growing the team to develop effective relationships with their accounts.

Having spent quite a lot of time in man-management roles I made the move to Regional Account Manager which provided a stepping stone to Business Development Manager (BDM) within the Channel where I have enjoyed the more commercial side of the business. I feel that the account management roles have really broadened my skill base and given me a much greater understanding of the total business and its goals.

Following a period of maternity leave I have moved to a new role of BDM NISA - this brings challenges in learning about a new channel, getting used to a new role and finding the right balance between work and life, more important to me now then ever.

I feel I now have a very broad base of skills and experience and have spent enough time in roles to truly understand what the key drivers are. I feel that I am in a position to consider lots of options when posed with problems because I can draw on previous experiences and weigh up what will work and perhaps more importantly what won't.

"A lot of development can only be gained with experience and time served in roles – it's always good to have to walk in your own footsteps."

"The more experience you have the more you realise how much knowledge and experience you need"

"My biggest misconceptions were around the BDM role – it's very fast moving and you have to be completely focused"