Having left school in 1982 with only an ‘O’ Level in Computing, I joined a subsidiary of IBM as a trainee computer programmer but after spending six months typing parking tickets into a database, I decided a major change was needed, so applied to be an apprentice in the Army. I spent 18 months at the Apprentice College being trained in all things Army-related, including driving licences and education. I was sent to Germany to start my career in what we now know as ‘Human Resources’. By the time I left the Army 23 years later I had reached the highest non-commission rank available to me and completed tours in Germany, Falkland Islands, Iraq, Northern Ireland, Kuwait and, of course, GB.
I left the Army and ‘mind mapped’ my skills against opportunities. I decided to stay in HR and was fortunate enough to land a position with Primark where I was responsible for more than 700 employees, most of whom were part-time staff. This was a steep learning curve for me, moving from an environment where people said “yes Sir” to one of “why?”. Whilst working in retail was enjoyable, the late nights followed by the commute home was not for me and having seen an advertisement for an interim position with Tayto near to my home, I decided to apply.
The interview with the Tayto Group’s HR Director was scheduled for about 30 minutes but lasted considerably longer. I was offered the position and I have been here ever since! My interim role became a permanent site HR Manager, this was followed by me being appointed Group HR Manager and then around 18 months ago I was appointed as Head of HR (GB). I am responsible for four Tayto Group sites in England along with the GB salesforce – around 1,000 people in total. I cover the full general HR remit, from recruitment through to termination and, of course, all the bits in between.
During my time here the business has gone through a number of changes, both in personnel and at our sites. I can honestly say that a career with Tayto is never going to be boring!
When I am recruiting for the Group, I try to look beyond the qualifications (unless these are mandatory) to understand how the individual is going to fit within the team. In my opinion a good fit and meeting 60% of the job description is better than a poor fit at 90%.
When reviewing candidates’ CVs, I need to get a feeling for how they work and what their achievements are. Candidates who merely copy your current job description don’t tell me anything about themselves. At the end of the day, the job description is not what you did but what you would have done if you were completing only what it says.
Also, a potential employee’s location is important. We have to be realistic in commute times, so if someone lives on the other side of the country, I would be keen to hear why they are applying in this particular area and how they plan to tackle the journey.
In general, in today’s market it is important for candidates to ‘sell themselves’ in an interview situation. I would encourage applicants to always be honest – don’t undersell yourself but also be prepared to substantiate what you are putting in your CV. If you are lucky to make it to the interview stage, tell the recruiter what YOU did, not what WE did. This is your interview and we need to understand the roles that you have completed not what your office did. For instance:
“We were responsible for rolling out auto-enrolment” does not sound as good as “I led a team responsible for delivering auto-enrolment” or “I had the responsibility for ensuring procedural compliance during the auto-enrolment roll-out”.
It is a very competitive market out there and I would advise employees not to move around too much. A CV that has lots of short-term roles (unless they were specifically short-term contracts) does not tell the employer that you are in it for the long haul. If you do leave a job after a few months, be prepared to explain why. Also, do not leave any gaps in your work history – if you were unemployed then say so and be prepared to tell the recruiter what you did during this period such as any re-training or voluntary work.
Other key advice that I would offer is to manage your expectations – just because your last role was at one particular level does not mean your new one is going to be. If you are good enough you will soon progress. Also, don’t get hung up on job titles – different businesses have different names for the same role, so I advise that jobseekers look at the content of the job description as this will give a greater understanding of what the role is about.
Andy
