Life at gem
Northern Ireland - Jane Cochrane
What made you come to work in gem?
I knew a few people already working for gem who talked about the good incentive schemes, bonus structures and its friendly and efficient working environment. I then decided to apply and have now been with gem since 2005.
When I began working for gem, I started in Expedia Sales where I was also cross trained in Expedia customer service. I won a holiday to New York for being top seller and represented Expedia at a United Airlines Ball. After a year and a half of selling holidays I transferred to Excalibur, A support campaign for gem. I was trained in several contracts including Play.com, Figleaves, King.com and Expedia Email. I enjoyed working on the different contracts and providing support to them. July 2007 I helped out with the Finance department and when a position became available, I applied and was successful and am very happy in my new role.
Describe what you do in a typical working day – what do you enjoy most?
As each day is different, my main duties consist of processing of purchase orders, coding and posting invoices to sage, payment runs, personal expenses, petty cash, setting up new employees and supervisors on flextime, bank reconciliations, supplier reconciliations and preparation of journals for monthly accounts.
Most of my job entails interacting with external suppliers and internal customers and the satisfaction I get from providing good service to both is gratifying. I love the sense of achievement when a job is well done.
What skills do you need for your job?
The skills essential for my role are, excellent customer service, sage line 200, advanced excel, good knowledge of debits and credits and a sense of humour.
With the support of gem I am enrolling in the IATI course (Institute of Accounting Technicians in Ireland) to progress into a career in accountancy.
What advice would you give someone considering a career in your profession?
I would advise that there are certain periods in a working month that can be stressful, stay positive, you will get through it.
The experience I have gained since I started in finance is second to none. Every day is different with new challenges and opportunities to increase my knowledge further.
French/Français - Eric Bourgeot
What’s your job and how did you get here?
I am the Technical Training Manager and I deal with the technical contracts in gem like Cisco, MSN & McAfee. I started in gem in September 2003 as a CIN agent for the Cisco contract and quickly moved on to the "training world" by applying for and accepting a position as a Client trainer for the Cisco contract. I gained skills and confidence for 2 years within this position and finally applied for the Technical Trainer's position.
What made you come to work in Belfast?
I used to live in Dublin for three-and-a-half years and always escaped to Belfast for few week ends to see friends. One day I decided to move to Belfast and leave the busy Dublin life.
Describe what you do in a typical working day – what do you enjoy most?
My typical day would be very much around communication with all the trainers that I manage and ensuring that all training activities are planned and delivered. I make sure they all feel supported and take care of any escalations. The second part of my day would revolve around planning future training activities in consultation with the resourcing and recruitment teams. Finally I will look at any potential improvements that can be made regarding training processes or training materials following trainees’ feedback. I make sure that most of training materials are transferred onto the Intranet for instant access by anyone working in the related contract.
What I like the most about my job is the fact that I can see every stage of what has been planned until the complete delivery. Learning more every time, I try to improve based on feedback and mistakes. Interaction with all business support teams and operations teams gives me a great chance to share with people that are always here to help.
What skills do you need for your job?
Very strong communication skills that can be used with our clients, trainers and employees.
A great understanding of a wide number of areas of IT is useful like networking, internet, Security, Databases, etc...
Organisational skills and planning my work daily, weekly, monthly is essential to my position and ensuring that things get done and are executed well.
What advice would you give someone considering a career in your profession?
Having IT skills would be a must. Focusing on managerial skills and communication would be a great start.
I think it is important to understand people, what they want and how to get them interested in order to provide innovative ideas for training.
