The fast transition from factory worker to UK Health, Safety and Quality Assurance Advisor
So here I am on the way home from London from my second week in a job that I thought I’d never get but in the field I left university adamant I wanted to work in. Yet just 4 weeks ago I was starting to think I’d be stuck as a factory worker for the foreseeable future. However, one lunch time I decided to go back on LinkedIn, where I’d received an invite for a chat about a potential health and safety role. Deciding I had nothing to lose I accepted the invite and now here we are.
The day I got offered the job I felt happier than I’d ever felt but that wasn’t the only surprise my new manager had to offer me. Much to my surprise Paul wanted me to start the following week, on a Saturday, to fly out to Georgia and Armenia with himself to undertake multiple corporate and retail health and safety assessments. I mean you’d have to be mad to not jump at the opportunity of your dream role but to be starting your first day at work flying to a different country was something nobody expects.
Day 1 of the job was to get from Manchester to Munich, meet Paul in the airport and from there fly to Tbilisi in Georgia. Luckily, I didn’t get lost and arrived safely at the hotel in Georgia. In Georgia I met some amazing staff who were eager to get health and safety incorporated into the business quickly and efficiently, as much to my disbelief before September 2019 health and safety didn’t exist! Not only did this trip sharpen up many of my skills such as risk analysis, communication and organisational skills it opened my eyes to how lucky we are in the UK to have such well developed health and safety systems.
The trip to Armenia occurred in the middle of the week and included assessments of the old offices and the new offices which were currently under development. For a country just over the border it was a different world from Georgia. It felt like I’d gone back in time with Ladas being driven around everywhere and it being apparently clear how much Russia influenced the country.
Back in Georgia we were lucky enough to have some free time where our Georgian colleagues had arranged a tour of Tbilisi to learn about its rich culture and history which dated to before the birth of Christ. Now I don’t have enough words to describe how crazy the history of Georgia is but if you have a minute just do a quick google and see for yourselves. Tbilisi is such a beautiful city, with friendly and extremely proud people a rich culture and history oozing out of every street corner. Its somewhere I’d never thought I’d end up visiting but I can honestly say that I’ll be going back to visit this amazing country in my own time to discover more of its hidden treasures and of course try some more of the wine it is famous for!
However, for now I have other exciting adventures to undertake in this new role such as meeting the rest of the teams I will collaborating with in this role. Georgia and Armenia in week one of the job, London in week two and Dublin for week three. I’ve never felt so welcome in a role with all the team I’ve met so far being very welcoming and accommodating whilst I learn the ropes and even getting great support from people such as Andrew who took time out of his busy schedule to onboard me and welcome me to Pareto FM personally.
I can’t wait to get my teeth sunk into this opportunity further!
By Louis Connelly
