Sales Executive
Paper Company

Tracey S

0:00:0 My name’s Tracey S. I’m an Outside Sales Executive. That means that I go and see customers outside, that, that buy paper from the, from the company. I think my job’s challenging; it’s a male dominated industry and I like to succeed and, and, and prove that, you know, females can be accepted in the, in the industry.

00:00:25 I enjoyed school. I enjoyed maths, I think was my favourite subject, but my parents…you know, my parents had split up so, basically, instead of going on to further education, I looked for a job and it, I was interested in going into an office environment and, and, and just I, I stumbled across the printers that obviously had a vacancy at the time. But I was very thorough, I was very…when things needed doing I did them straight away basically, and I think when you’re in sales you need to be very organised.

00:00:57 Developed different skills and moved on to dealing with The Paper Company and buying paper. An opportunity came up for a vacancy within Rothera & Brereton; they did tell me that there was no females that had been employed in the past in sales, but I got the job. The idea of having a car and the freedom was quite appealing. I got six months trial and I’ve been doing the job 17 and a half years.

00:01:25 The turning point in my life was when I lost my mum. Basically, losing my mum made me realize that, you know, things can change instantly. I think you’ve got to achieve the best you can in the time that you have, whether you’ve got your parent there or not, and I’ve always wanted my parents to be proud of me and I’m sure that she’s looking down there thinking that she is.

0:01:52 Had I been trained earlier in my career, I could have been the MD of Paper Co., you know, if I put my mind to it, you can achieve anything and I think that, that today Paper Co. are giving us all opportunities. The next step is to be a Manager and hopefully, you know, I’ll be getting opportunities to go onto courses about management and, you know, wherever that leads me, I’ll go. There’s, there will be a management job there for me, I’m sure.

00:02:21 I love my job, I just want to move up the scale and I’m sure that, you know, in the not too distant future, that will, that will happen. There are a lot more women working in the industry now. The company has changed as well, as we’ve moved on; there’s a lot more training involved and it gives you so much more confidence and more opportunities are opening up for us. If you like your comfort zone, you can actually move on and it’s challenging and once you’ve done it once, you can do it again. Put your mind to it you can do anything.

00:02:52 Just recently, after this training course, I did a presentation to the board of Directors which six months ago, I’d have, I’d have run a mile. I needed to do that for my confidence and I did it very well. I got a lot of positive feedback. I know that if I can do that, I can put my mind to it, I can achieve all sorts. I don’t have any regrets at all. I’ve got a little boy; I still manage to work full time, very challenging, very hard work, but it keeps you young, it keeps you fit and I enjoy working for the industry.

ENDS