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After a year in a pandemic, job opportunities were hard to find. 8 long months of endless job hunting and I was starting to feel deflated and unmotivated. Finally, luck was on my side, my work coach sent me a link for an ‘Operations Specialist’ role at Supply Change. After reading what Supply Change represented and what their impact was as a business I sent in my application and started researching more about the company. Prepared with knowledge of Supply Change I was ready for my interview, needless to say, it paid off.
Why did I choose Supply Change? I wanted to get out of my comfort zone as I only ever worked in retail previous to this and if you ask me, this is as much of a change from retail as it gets. I could’ve waited for other job role opportunities, but why delay the process even more. Second to that, the Co-Founders of Supply Change made the interview process feel relaxed and welcoming. For me personally, it’s important to have a workplace that makes you feel like you want to work, otherwise, what’s the point in working somewhere you’re not happy. Supply Change does this by keeping a friendly work environment and never adding too much pressure. There are weekly check-ins to see how I'm coping with the workload and if I want to work on something in particular that is more suitable for me. So from this I know they have their staff's best interest at heart.
Never working for a social enterprise nor having been an Operations Specialist before, I was starting a role not knowing exactly what to expect. With any new job, you have to adapt to your surroundings and learn new skills. Fortunately, the staff here at Supply Change are supportive and are always available for any questions I may have. They made an effort to make me feel welcomed into the team, scheduling daily video calls for the first week to see how I was getting on or if I needed help with anything in particular.
Working for a social enterprise is great as you are helping make a change to the community and environment. Being able to research potential clients is intriguing as you find out how many different companies are also willing to make a change to the environment and give back to the community. Recently I have been appointed to approach potential buyers via email helping Beth Pilgrim, CEO of Supply Change, prepare for meetings with fact sheets on the client who will be attending the call. It’s rewarding when the potential buyer then says they’re interested in working with our company. I have also been helping Aoise Keogan Nooshabadi, Co-founder, of Supply Change find potential suppliers to add to our list of clients.
Some of my other achievements have included writing my first ever blog about Mediorite, an agency specialising in photography and film whilst tackling youth unemployment in the media sector. You can read the blog here. Another achievement is creating a Press release spreadsheet, this involved a lot of research and putting a number of different articles together for the company. I have also been involved in buyers outreach which has gained the company a number of meetings and potential clients.
Whilst working as an operations specialist for Supply Change I have gained more skills, some including; learning how to use Google Suite, scheduling posts for Twitter and LinkedIn, using apps that businesses use for communicating and learning how to reach out to a wide audience of organisations efficiently and effectively. Taking these skills into future job roles I will have more knowledge of what different companies use to communicate, research, what they use for meeting presentations, and being more confident when it comes to approaching clients.
If you are interested in engaging with any social enterprise suppliers or are a social enterprise looking for more buyers, please get in touch with us at hello@supplychange.co.uk
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