Head Receptionist/HR
Sheffield United Football Club

Siobhan W

00:00:03 I’m Siobhan W. I work for Sheffield United Football Club, and I work in HR, I’m also the Head Receptionist, and I deal with all catering’s invoicing. Obviously, I started off in the ticket office, part-time, and I’ve worked through sales, onto reception. One of the main things I do enjoy about my job down here is the very wide variety of people I work with. It’s a very close knit bunch. We all get on very well, everyone in every single department. It is like a family environment down at Sheffield United.

00:00:32 My career as a student. I was one of the people who had very good attendance. I did do my best in all my subjects, to the best of my ability. I did a lot of hockey when I was at school. I’ve done a range of sports from badminton, tennis, horse riding. I didn’t like being forced to do work when I didn’t want to do it, I guess. My business studies lessons weren’t always spent in the classroom, but that was down to me and the teacher having a clash of personalities, I guess. The majority of the two year course was ‘I don’t like you. I’m not going to do your work.’ It got close to my exams and I thought ‘Actually, I’m going to prove you wrong,’ and I ended up, when they said I was going to fail, coming out with two grades better, so I felt very pleased with myself then.

00:01:22 I decided I’d had enough of the school environment and I wanted something different. I then moved to college where no one from my school really went, so I kind of reinvented myself and started putting in a lot more hard work for my A levels. Obviously, I started working as well at the time, down at Sheffield United in the ticket office, part-time, and then kind of progressed from there and got the feel of money. I had every intention, I think, at the time, of still moving onto university. The further I got into the job, the more I enjoyed what I was doing, the more responsibilities I was getting. I think it was important for me because I was going out into the world, starting to make my own footsteps in the working world as well, proving to myself and probably my parents as well that I could actually do it for myself.

00:02:15 Whatever my parents told me, I always wanted to do the opposite. Even when they tried to use reverse psychology, it never really worked on me anyway. My parents, I think, would have liked me to go onto university and get a degree in something for me to use later on in life, whereas I kind of decided I’d started working, I enjoy earning money more, I’m going to do this and do it my way.

00:02:37 My mum has always been a housewife. She has always been there whilst me and my sister have been growing up. My dad has constantly worked hard through the family business, which is a print business. My dad has always been one to put in the extra hours because he has to, and I’ve picked that up from my dad and that’s what I try and do with my job.

00:02:58 I think the most important thing for me at the minute is that I’m happy in my job and I’m happy with the direction I’m going with that, which I am, and I do see myself being at Sheffield United for quite a while yet. When I was ten-years-old, I used to have so many different ideas of what jobs I wanted to do, going from vets to horse riding instructor. Dolphin trainer I think was a good one at one point. But when I’ve grown up, I’ve never known what I’ve wanted to do, and I find all these opportunities and I just take them and I progress from there.

00:03:31 End