My journey at Beyondly gave me such a brilliant foundation for my career in the resources and waste sector. I am very grateful for all the opportunities I got to explore and the support I received whilst at Beyondly.
I started at Beyondly as an account manager for packaging, WEEE and batteries compliance customers. This experience enabled me to work directly with obligated producers, develop customer service and relationship-building skills, and understand the challenges and opportunities producers face when complying with environmental regulations.
Early on at Beyondly, I took part in an internal careers training session which helped me to understand my super strengths and values. Identifying these areas helped me to have the confidence to put myself forward for the following voluntary roles at Beyondly: health & wellbeing champion, net zero champion, policy champion, and the responsibility for chairing company meetings. It was becoming a policy champion that led me to my role of Regulatory Affairs Leader as I had experience in that area of the business already, and chairing company meetings gave me chairing experience before putting myself forward for PSF Chair, and both of these roles were crucial in my career as they have led me to where I am today.
- Communication, relationship building and customer service – these are key skills to support for any role, but clear communication helps me to explain highly technical information or systems change processes to different audiences. Relationship building and customer service skills help me to maintain strong connections to other people and organisations that I deliver work for.
- Leadership – this helped me to lead a function of the business at Beyondly, and in my current role helps me to effectively make decisions, think strategically and navigate through complex challenges.
- Technical knowledge of EPR – understanding how and EPR scheme works in practice, the different stakeholders and roles they play, is very important for my role at WRAP, and at Beyondly I was able to gain first-hand experience of this.
As mentioned above, all the opportunities I had at Beyondly to explore my interests and strengths early on in my career was so valuable and enriching, and enabled me to progress to where I am today. Key experiences for me were being a policy champion whilst I was an account manager, and chairing the Beyondly company meetings.
I still draw on my experience of being an account manager for packaging, WEEE and batteries customers at Beyondly, and I heavily draw on my experience as Regulatory Affairs Leader during the reform to packaging EPR in the UK, as from that experience I understand practically how an EPR system is introduced and the roles that all stakeholders have to play in the system.
Attending the PSF and WSF meetings to listen, learn and meet other people in the sector, was extremely helpful before putting myself forward to Chair the PSF, which then gave me a rich experience of chairing before applying to be Chair of PackUK’s RAM TAC.
But the most important part of my experience at Beyondly was the people I had around me, who encouraged me and supported me during the early years of my career development. I feel so grateful to have had such a supportive experience.
Seize every opportunity presented to you and push yourself to do things that are hard or seem scary! We grow when we are out of our comfort zone and we get to explore what our strengths are and what we enjoy during these challenges. Explore these opportunities, even if they don’t seem like what you expected you would be doing in your career, as you never know where something could take you or what doors it will open in the future.
Chairing the PSF whilst I was at Beyondly was initially very scary to me, but I did it anyway and I’m so proud of myself for that, as it enabled me to grow my confidence and having that experience has opened so many more doors for me since.
