10th Picture

This is the BT building in Doncaster, and I worked here for less than a year back in 1999.

This place literally changed my life. 

We moved to Skellow, Doncaster in 1983. At the time I was in college in Huddersfield but I decided to forgo my education to help my brother in our new family venture. 

Everything was very exciting to start with and within a couple of years I was running my own store in Auckley.

Life was good to start with but when you’ve only ever worked for yourself and had very little outside contact (career wise) it’s difficult to break free and do something else. I remember often saying to my family that I had had enough of working in a shop, the question they always asked was “what are you going to do instead”? I had no answer to this very simple question. 

Eventually in 1991 I decided that enough was enough and started a clothing business on the markets. A few years later I packed that job in and got myself a job delivering newspapers for John Menzies. And I stayed there till I got the job at BT. 

Although I had left the grocery shop life, I still helped my brother in his from time to time. It was during one such spell in early 1997 that I first heard that BT was opening a call centre in Doncaster. Quite a few local villagers started work there and a lot of them left soon after. I heard a lot of horror stories about conditions in this hell hole. 

These horror stories were still in the back of my mind when I eventually applied to work there. However, needs must as they say so I ignored my doubts and started a new job.

After my 2 week induction, I was let loose online. This was a total culture shock for me, although I had been used to selling to customers, it was a passive sale. However they now wanted me to sell to customers who didn't necessarily wanted to buy the products I was selling. Luckily I knew a few folks who also worked there and with their help I started to achieve my targets.  

So my job was safe for now and slowly I fine tuned my selling skills and eventually I went on to be in the top 10% of all sellers on site.  

Having been self employeed for most of my working life I had to have a good work ethic. And although I was only really working at about 75% capacity I was still miles ahead of everyone else there. This was an advantage as I was getting noticed by lots of different managers and their managers around the site.

 

Very soon I started to get promoted, first to a C shift, then a B shift and finally an A shift. During this time I had decided to make a long term career with BT, but to achiever this I first needed a full time contract. 

When eventually that day arrived I wasted no time in applying for jobs in other locations. 

So in Oct 1999 I started a new job at BT Business in Sheffield. 

Again due to my work ethic and new found sales skills I soon started climb the corporate ladder. However office politics played a huge role in my frustratingly slow progress. But eventually I got a managers post and was regularly seconded to the centre mangers post. 

Alas It was during this time we took over Spar Auckley in 2002 (full story in earlier blog). Although I was still working for BT and was still working flat out, I now knew that if the shop could be saved that this is where my future lay.  

So in Jan 2004 I left BT to open up our newsagents a couple of doors down from the Spar. 

What did my time at BT teach me? 

I fine tuned my management style; working in so many different departments under so many different managers I very quickly noticed what worked and what didn’t so I was able to adopt the bits that did worked into my own management style.

Working to a deadline; this is one of the biggest challenges I faced when I was initially working for myself. But in a large corporation like BT with tons of targets and deadlines, you aren’t afforded that luxury. 

It’s also given me an enormous amount of self confidence. Prior to starting at BT, I was filled with self doubt and lacked confidence. But knowing that I have the skills to climb up the corporate ladder has given me so my self belief. 

Ammo