Finlay Cole

I am a student going into my second year of studying International Relations at the University of Glasgow having spent most of my first year working part time at Lidl. I am looking to begin working full time over the summer in Elgin (my home) in an engaging role for a reputable company. I took a gap year from 2022-23 where I gained work experience in various sectors.

This included a month fundraising as part of a tele-campaign and eleven months working long hours in a professional kitchen delivering under pressure and improving my transferrable skills such as customer service, adaptability, teamwork, and a strong work ethic. In March I took a short break from working in the UK to volunteer in Tanzania for a month. I began working for Lidl in November 2023 and my experience with the company has developed more of my skills such as my ability to work fast to achieve to time targets.

Lidl Stiftung & Co. Kg (November 2023 – present) – Customer Assistant, Finnieston Glasgow

• Working part time (between 15-30 hours a week) alongside my university studies at a busy store in central Glasgow 
• My work pattern primarily consists of 6am starts four or five days a week, before going into a full day of university. The role has been challenging but extremely rewarding as it has helped me develop several important skills: 

Working within time targets: the primary concern in the morning is working stock as quickly as possible and reaching targets within certain time frames to ensure the efficiency of the business. At first, I found this a challenging task given the scale of the operation and my lack of experience, but I quickly picked up the level of speed required and am now very comfortable operating at the fast tempo that the business requires

Work/life balance: juggling early shifts with university life has massively helped me mature in how I manage my work life in relation with the rest of my life. Meeting the demands of my degree whilst giving my job 100% and maintaining a social life has required a lot of discipline but has been extremely rewarding

Cash handling and till operation: handling money and gaining full experience in till operation is a new key skill that I have gained by working at Lidl 

Bothy Bistro Burghead Ltd (July 2022 – January 2023) (April – July 2023) – Front Of House (FOH)/Back of House (BOH)

• Worked full-time during the challenging transition of a takeaway kitchen into a new, busy restaurant
• Worked FOH for one month before becoming part of the kitchen team where I became solely responsible very quickly for prepping and running the kitchen’s larder section (one of 3 sections in this kitchen). I enjoyed the intensity of the job, the key things it gave me were: 

An ability to learn fast and deliver: despite joining the kitchen temporarily due to staff shortages, I picked up kitchen skills and standards quickly and slotted into the team. This resulted in my role in the kitchen becoming permanent, even when the number of professional chefs increased

Drive: the role was intense and often stressful, with 65-hour working weeks not uncommon. Spending most of that time on a busy service and often having to overcome problems associated with the new business venture required determination, focus and stamina. I was often drafted back into FOH roles during staff shortages, allowing me to exercise my customer-service skills too. 

Teamwork: Probably the best bit for me, to be successful we had to work really well as a team particularly in the early days. I really enjoy being part of a team, both in terms of supporting colleagues that are either new or are struggling in a particular area, but also being supported by experienced chefs and being able to learn from them and improve

Gordonstoun Schools Limited (July 2022) – Tele-campaign Caller

• Part of the team that delivered a highly successful marketing campaign via phone calls with other (often much older) ex-students to collect donations. Key skills:

Attention to detail: the training was fast paced and the sales process itself was unforgiving of any errors

Establishing positive and friendly rapport: to be successful you had to very quickly establish rapport and be able to put people at their ease. I found I was able to do this naturally and took real pleasure in making connections with people

Adaptability: was essential when phoning different demographics and working through different responses

Passion and enthusiasm: without these attributes it was impossible to win people over. Although it helped that I loved my time at Gordonstoun, I am a naturally passionate and enthusiastic person for things I believe in, so this really helped me

Phoenix Findhorn CIC - Blue Angel Café (Summer 2019) – Waiter / Kitchen porter 

• Introduction to working in hospitality. 
• Balanced waiter duties with being the kitchen porter in an often busy and understaffed café
• Taught me the importance of having an adaptable character, and a driven work ethic with a positive attitude

University of Glasgow - Undergraduate International Relations (currently going into 2nd year).

Finished 8 years at Gordonstoun school, achieving A*A*A at A-level.