Technical Manager (facilities)
All Star Lanes
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My name is Ruslan.
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I’m working at All Star Lanes.
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I’m a technical manager. We’re based in Westfield,
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White City.
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All Star Lanes is a bowling alley.
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Not only a bowling alley – we
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are a restaurant, bar,
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karaoke.
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We always do the private events.
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My job is actually to take care of all the bowling equipment,
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facilities, and just keep the building managed well.
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I can fix
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any issue with the bowling machine.
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It doesn’t matter which one – it’s gonna be electrical stuff,
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or mechanical stuff, or
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simple bowl jam, so I can fix everything.
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It’s very interesting,
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it’s almost never boring.
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I always can find out something, which
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I even don’t know sometimes, and I find out.
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And always when you
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find out something new for you, you feel you have a win.
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So a little bit I have to be facilities and also a bit like handyman.
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My skills is
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like, basically electrical skills,
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technical skills and plumbing skills.
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School was
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for me, let’s say, sometimes boring.
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After school I go to the transport college.
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Transport college is like
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train manufacturing.
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I have to fix the train and I have to fix the wagon.
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And after that, we get the practical as well.
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So I worked with the big manufacturer for more than three years.
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My profession was actually
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train mechanical engineer.
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In this time in Latvia,
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it was a very bad economic situation and a lot of people lose their jobs.
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So a lot of manufacturers were closed in Latvia,
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even, especially my manufacturer where I worked before.
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So at that time I had already a young family
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and I start to think about, okay, maybe I need to go somewhere. For this reason, I
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go to
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London and try to find myself.
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And slowly, slowly –
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I’ve been to one venue,
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this was near Heathrow Airport.
It was called Airport Bowl.
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I find a job.
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I was in Latvia and one of my friends,
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he says, ‘look, you can go there and they are looking for a technician.’
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I said, ‘Why not?
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Okay, if I can fix a big train,
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why can’t I sort out an issue without experience
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in the bowling alley with the pinspotter?’
I read the manual and
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pick up the skills very quick.
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After that, one of the managers who is working at All Star Lanes,
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he hears something about me.
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He’s looking for a technician and he gives me an offer.
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It was a bad time
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when I arrived in the UK, very very beginning.
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It was difficult, you know,
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my language was not really well at all.
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So it was difficult.
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If you want to do something, if you want to achieve something,
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you have to work hard. Always try.
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Never postpone –
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‘Oh, I can do this tomorrow.’ No, no.
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Try today, right now.
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You will feel after that how you win.
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It’s going to be a little win, but you win.
“If you want to achieve something, you have to work hard.” Ruslan likes fixing things. He grew up in Latvia and trained as a mechanical engineer before moving to the UK to find work. He now looks after the equipment and the building at a bowling alley.
End of LMI for All
This section will not be available from the end of October 2025 as the data supplier LMI For All is closing. We are exploring alternatives so watch this space!
The UK average salary is ÂŁ29,813
There are 37.5 hours in the average working week
The UK workforce is 47% female and 53% male
Future employment
- Plans and prepares work and test schedules based on specifications and drawings
- Sets up equipment, undertakes tests, takes readings, performs calculations and records and interprets data
- Prepares estimates of materials, equipment and labour required for engineering projects
- Diagnoses and detects faults and implements procedures to maintain efficient operation of systems and equipment
- Inspects completed aircraft maintenance work to certify that it meets standards and the aircraft is ready for operation;
- Visits and advises clients on the use and servicing of mechanical and chemical engineering products and services
- Provides health and safety inductions and adheres to health and safety procedures
- Completes documentation such as project records, safety reports
- Carries out stock takes
