00:00:02 My name's Linda and I'm a hospitality assistant. I've got a trolley and I serve tea and coffee and snacks on board the trains. When I was young I always wanted to be a hairdresser. I just loved, like, doing different things with my hair. I always had it in a different style. I always had it curly or straight, different colours and that's just what hairdressers do. So, I wanted to do that as well.
00:00:29 I always knew that I would just leave school and get a job. I wanted to make some money. I didn't like studying, looking at books, I wanted to get out in the world and see what was there. I think I just wanted to go and make money. I wanted to get a car, learn how to drive so I knew I had to make money to do that. My first job I was an office junior and I just done day to day filing, running errands and I was stuck in a wee office, just myself.
00:00:58 And I didn't like it. And then one day I was looking through the newspaper and I saw a job to be an au pair in America. That was more me. I jumped at it and went to New York when I was 18. I'd never done anything like that in my life before so it was a big kind of step. I'll never forget that feeling sitting in a plane thinking, "What am I doing?" And then I got to New York Airport and there was a man standing with a wee board with my name on it, like you see in the movies, and I was like, "Hi, it's me."
00:01:30 My experience in New York was fantastic. I'll never regret any of it. I done some loads of nice things, met loads of people, done all your touristy stuff and shopped. It was great. I was in New York for a year and a half and the only reason I came back was because my visa had run out. I remember coming back from New York. I cried all the way back but once I got into Glasgow Airport and saw my brothers and sisters, it was nice. I was quite happy to be back.
00:02:02 And I knew, I knew I just had to get back in a routine and get a job and I knew all the things that then I had to do. That's when I got a job in the bar. The bar was more like in a local bar, you knew all the regulars in it. It was nice, you got to know people but you were serving the same people every day and you kind of get stuck in a rut and it just becomes life for you until you choose to do something else.
00:02:29 And I got to a stage where I was getting up every morning and I didn't want to go to work anymore and I thought, "It's not what I want to do anymore." So, I started looking for another job online and I came up with ScotRail. The most challenging thing in my life is actually when you've worked in a place for so long is to find it inside you to move on and do something different, work with new people, go for that interview, do something that you're not used to. But once you get there you know, you know it's fine. That you'll be ok.
00:03:08 A lot of it's me. Every day is getting up in the morning and knowing that I'm going somewhere different and meeting someone different from all over the world. You never know who you're going to meet. Things I'd like to achieve eventually is to meet someone nice, settle down, have kids. Quite happy with what I'm doing in my career. So now it's my personal life I've got to get sorted.
Linda Butler
Linda Butler
My name's Linda and I'm a hospitality assistant. I've got a trolley and I serve tea and coffee and snacks on board the trains. When I was young I always wanted to be a hairdresser. I just loved, like, doing different things with my hair. I always had it in a different style. I always had it curly or straight, different colours and that's just what hairdressers do. So, I wanted to do that as well.
I always knew that I would just leave school and get a job. I wanted to make some money. I didn't like studying, looking at books, I wanted to get out in the world and see what was there. I think I just wanted to go and make money. I wanted to get a car, learn how to drive so I knew I had to make money to do that. My first job I was an office junior and I just done day to day filing, running errands and I was stuck in a wee office, just myself.
And I didn't like it. And then one day I was looking through the newspaper and I saw a job to be an au pair in America. That was more me. I jumped at it and went to New York when I was 18. I'd never done anything like that in my life before so it was a big kind of step. I'll never forget that feeling sitting in a plane thinking, "What am I doing?" And then I got to New York Airport and there was a man standing with a wee board with my name on it, like you see in the movies, and I was like, "Hi, it's me."
My experience in New York was fantastic. I'll never regret any of it. I done some loads of nice things, met loads of people, done all your touristy stuff and shopped. It was great. I was in New York for a year and a half and the only reason I came back was because my visa had run out. I remember coming back from New York. I cried all the way back but once I got into Glasgow Airport and saw my brothers and sisters, it was nice. I was quite happy to be back.
And I knew, I knew I just had to get back in a routine and get a job and I knew all the things that then I had to do. That's when I got a job in the bar. The bar was more like in a local bar, you knew all the regulars in it. It was nice, you got to know people but you were serving the same people every day and you kind of get stuck in a rut and it just becomes life for you until you choose to do something else.
And I got to a stage where I was getting up every morning and I didn't want to go to work anymore and I thought, "It's not what I want to do anymore." So, I started looking for another job online and I came up with ScotRail. The most challenging thing in my life is actually when you've worked in a place for so long is to find it inside you to move on and do something different, work with new people, go for that interview, do something that you're not used to. But once you get there you know, you know it's fine. That you'll be ok.
A lot of it's me. Every day is getting up in the morning and knowing that I'm going somewhere different and meeting someone different from all over the world. You never know who you're going to meet. Things I'd like to achieve eventually is to meet someone nice, settle down, have kids. Quite happy with what I'm doing in my career. So now it's my personal life I've got to get sorted.
Linda Butler is a hospitality assistant for ScotRail, "I've got a trolley and I serve tea and coffee and snacks on board the trains". The thing she enjoys most about her job is travelling to somewhere different every day and meeting new people from all over the world. Linda has also worked in New York as an au pair.
External links
Sector Skills Council for the Hospitality Industry
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