Chanel joined GRoW in May of this year and has now started work as a Virtual Sales Consultant promoting the government’s Kickstart scheme to businesses across the UK.
Chanel said “As my children are now aged 2 and 4 and are at pre-school and nursery Monday to Friday I thought it was the perfect time for me to find a job and get my ‘life back’. I went to my local jobcentre to find out about going back to work. As my last job was doing waitressing 4 years ago when I was in the sixth form I felt underprepared and needed some help. Fortunately the Jobcentre referred me to GRoW.
The GRoW Team were great, they offered me lots of opportunities to build my confidence and skills, firstly with the Coffee Morning where I learned about their partners Smart Works who offer new clothes for people who have an interview. I was really impressed as being out of work for so long I didn’t really have the right clothes to sell myself properly at an interview, I didn’t even own a blazer. It was good to know that this opportunity would be available to me should I get an interview.
GRoW held an Online Jobs Fair on their app which was great experience. They told me how to apply for a job and on a zoom call they took me through the application process so I understood what I needed to do. They also provided help with my CV and a cover letter. I hadn’t written a CV since I was at college and it really needed updating. When I found a job I was interested in applying for Sonia helped me to tweak it to fit the role and it helped me so much. As soon as I applied for the job I was offered an interview straight away which I really wasn’t expecting. Sonia gave me a list of questions that the interviewer was likely to ask me and I then researched on YouTube to get better prepared.
I was offered the clothes from Smart Works for the interview which made me feel so much more prepared and confident. Also Sonia’s interview advice made 100% difference because I was offered the job. It is the only job I have applied for and I was so pleased to get it straight away.
The job is a Virtual Sales Consultant promoting the Kickstart scheme to businesses across the UK. I am also employed as part of the Kickstart programme which is aimed at helping 16-24 year olds into work and was created as part of the government’s response to the covid-19 pandemic. The job is completely different from anything I have ever done before but it really fits in with my life. I am working flexible hours 10 – 3 which means I can take my children to school and pick them up. I am working from home remotely too which is ideal for me and my situation.
As the Kickstart scheme only supports people in work for six months I am continuing to get support from GRoW and am currently doing their GRoW Your Own Business Programme with Mercedes Grant. I have already picked up such a lot of experience in my new job and doing sales work makes you quite resilient. I think I would be interested in continuing with this type of work in the future but it is also great to explore all opportunities that are out there.