“I’ve lived in Perth all of my life. When I was 17, I did a Next Steps course at UHI, Perth which is a really popular course that gives students a taster of lots of different specialist subject areas including administration, beauty and wellbeing, English and numeracy, professional cookery and sport. Of all the subject areas, I really liked the administration side, because of the structure. There were steps to follow, and by following the steps you’d get the right answer, which appealed to my organised nature.
“After the Next Steps course, I did a National Certificate (NC) in administration, which included event organisation, WordPress, spreadsheets and reception. The event organisation was interesting as we were split into groups to organise an event, with the aim of raising money for a charity. We picked Remember My Baby, which is a non-profit charity which creates remembrance photography for bereaved parents. To raise money, we had a bake sale and a raffle with prizes donated by local businesses. My friend even shaved her head!
“The aspect of the qualification I enjoyed most was the spreadsheets and word processing. I’ve always had a decent mind for computing and maths, but the course pushed me into new subject areas. After completing the NC, I undertook a HNC, which were the same subjects but studied at a higher level. Then, the pandemic hit; no-one was prepared for it, including teachers. They were having to teach over Zoom for the first time, and we went from being taught on campus to being at home 24 hours a day, trying to learn over Zoom.
“I was fortunate that I lived at home during the pandemic, so I had my family around me. My brother had moved out just before though, and when my niece was born we didn’t get to meet her in person for a long time. I can remember how strange it was in Perth during the pandemic, when the shops were all closed, and we had to queue up to buy food with our masks and gloves on. Then, when restrictions were lifted, we had to get used to being around people again!
“My family is very important to me, including my fiancé. Out of work, I love to read, particularly anything in the fantasy or action genres. I love being immersed into new worlds. I can read a book in a day. I also have three pets, a staffie and two cats.
“As part of my HNC, I did work experience with a marketing company in Perth called The Malting House. They had an office at the Creative Exchange in Perth, where I’d go to meet the team, and through working with The Malting House, I started using tools like Hubspot. Debbie at The Malting House spotted the job advert for the administration assistant role with Miconex and encouraged me to apply.
“I was invited to interview, and what I liked about Miconex was how nice everyone was. With it being my first job, it was important to work with friendly people. I liked the scope of the role, with the chance to get involved in a variety of administration tasks. I was also intrigued with the fact that Miconex is a Gift Card company – we all see and use Gift Cards all the time but it was an opportunity to go behind the scenes and understand how they actually work.
“I’d seen the Perth City & Towns Gift Card advertised in the city before, and thought it was an interesting concept. Obviously, once starting with Miconex, I really got to appreciate the benefits that Miconex’s local Town & City Gift Cards and Downtown Gift Cards offer. One of the projects I was involved in was the disbursement of over £13m in LACER funding using the Scotland Loves Local Gift Cards providing targeted support for businesses and communities. I was involved in loading all of the cards and it felt good to play a role in such an important project that helped support families and businesses who were struggling during the pandemic.
“At a general level, I like the fact that Town & City Gift Cards and Downtown Gift Cards can be spent with a wide variety of businesses. As well as shops, it’s also cafés, and both big brands and independent businesses. It gives the recipient choice, no matter their interest or personal circumstances. I love being able to shop in person, and local businesses are a lifeline for people like my grandad who doesn’t shop online. Our local Gift Cards are a great thing for businesses to be a part of, because they drive footfall and spend, which helps shops stay open.
“One of my favourite things about the job is seeing the messages people write, that we add to the Gift Card holders, from the funny ones like ‘here you go, you numpty’ to the heartfelt ones that come through for weddings, christenings, retirements and people leaving their job. I think my favourite time of year though is when the Mother’s Day and Father’s Day orders come in, the messages are lovely. The great thing about working for Miconex is the variety, there are so many different tasks and projects to get involved in. Every day is different, and that makes it a great place to work.”