This week is National Careers Week (1-6 March), so we've been catching up with our colleagues about their career journeys with Vanquis.
First up is Ben who joined us as a graduate back in 2016, and has recently secured a role as a Product Manager in the New Business team. Coming up to his five-year anniversary, we caught up with him about his time with us so far, what's made his successful and his aspirations for the future.
Congratulations on your recent move into the Product team! Talk us through your career journey at Vanquis so far...
Thank you! I can’t believe it’s coming up to five years. I joined Vanquis back in 2016 as part of the Operations Grad Scheme where I spent two years working across different areas of Operations – Fraud, Collections, Fresh Start and the Digital App team. When I finished the scheme, I joined the Fresh Start management team and more recently, I have been working as an Operations Change Programme Manager with a particular focus on the implementation of our COVID response measures over the past 12 months.
Now I am really looking forward to a new chapter in my career in the Product team.
What made you first consider your new role as a Product Manager?
Through regular development conversations with my manager, I had always seen a role in the Product team as the next step in my career and tried to ensure I was working towards that as much as possible. I have worked with the team on many initiatives over the years. More recently on introducing the payment freeze and exit solutions to support our customers through the pandemic.
I wanted to continue to learn, view the business and our customers from a different perspective and understand the commercial drivers critical to our success to get a more well-rounded view of the business.
What do you think made you successful in the start of your career?
On reflection I think this is down to these key things:
- A willingness to learn and put myself outside my comfort zone
- Being open and honest about my career aspirations
- Spending time to understand the existing challenges and potential opportunities
- Building a network to enable the right conversations, learn and get involved in the relevant areas
- Focussing on the customer
- A positive attitude
How does your background in the Operations Future Leaders Grad Scheme help you in your new team?
It’s still quite early days but, for sure, the relationships I have made over the years will undoubtedly improve communication and working relationships between the teams. The experience of working so closely with our customers and understanding the downstream impacts of decisions made by the Product team both to customers and the operation is really beneficial and provides an extra viewpoint to discussions.
What is the culture like in the Product Team?
For a newly formed team, with lots of new faces the culture is great. We make sure we create time to catch up as much as much as possible - particularly whilst working from home. We have a great mix of people and experience which gives a wide range of perspective and creates a healthy team dynamic.
How do you think you make a difference in your role?
Working in Product and particularly in New Business, you have a direct impact on the products available to our customers and the initiation of their journey with Vanquis.
We have plans to enhance/diversify our product proposition over the next 12 months for customers which is really exciting to be involved in and we’ll be able to directly measure the impact of over time.
What are your aspirations for 2021?
My aspirations for 2021 is to continue to learn and develop as a Product Manager, there is so much to get involved in and I think that a critical part of learning is to throw yourself into things as much as possible and learn as you go. As I mentioned we are a new team with lots of new faces and challenges being presented to us, if we can deliver our objectives for the year I’ll be really pleased.
Personally, my quest to become a single figure golfer continues…
