Interview with Beverley Shaw

Making sure my boss is where he should be, when he should be is one of my biggest priorities; this involves a lot of calendar organisation because a lot happens very last minute. I’m also responsible for arranging very detailed travel itineraries; for multi-centre trips there’s so much to think about, from visas to taxis.
 

Then I have my day-to-day activities like filing, answering emails (both on behalf of my boss and myself) and ensuring the departmental budget is kept on track. This actually takes up a lot of my time because I have to make sure we’re not spending too much. It helps that my accountant husband has created a spreadsheet that works out the formulas for me!
 

I never really know from one day to the next what I’ll be doing; we work in multiple markets in multiple time zones so if something happens overnight here I have to deal with it the next morning. You just come in and do it – whatever’s in your inbox, you deal with it.

I think the most important requirement for my role is trust; I deal with confidential matters so tact and diplomacy are very important and I’m an ambassador for the team and a representative of my boss. Managing my manager means I need to be 100% on top of my calendar. Then there are skills like Word and PowerPoint and understanding the company’s financial system – all important for the role. I have to have a ‘can do’ attitude, and if I can’t do, I find someone who can!

The biggest challenge for me on an annual basis is organising our global design summit, which takes place over three days. This means everything from sourcing the venue to planning team-building activities; for example the last one was in Munich so we went to the BMW Experience, and then a traditional bierkeller and restaurant. In many ways this is the most rewarding part of the role too; if at the end of the three days everything has gone to plan it’s great to be recognised for a job well done.

I chose Page Personnel because they set the bar higher than other recruitment agencies. My consultant, Barney Stupples, knew the market and the type of role I wanted and never put me forward for anything he thought I was overqualified or unsuitable for. Some agencies will tell you to go to every interview and use it as an ‘experience’ but Barney was good at matching me with roles he knew I’d enjoy, was capable of and wanted to do. Page listen to you, other agencies don’t.

Good, I would highly recommend Page Personnel Secretarial & Business Support to anyone that was looking for my kind of position.

Know what you want to do and know what industry you want to work in but also be open to suggestions. Discuss your requirements with your consultant so they have all the information and if you want to move industries they’ll know how each market works so will be able to help you.

At the moment I’m reading Karen Swan novels, they’re quite easygoing; I just want to read something that doesn’t require too much thinking when I’m at home, I do enough of that during the day! I’m enjoying Mr Selfridge on TV, I love costume dramas, and also good documentaries like David Attenborough programs and Penguins – Spy in the Huddle.
 

I love LinkedIn, I use it all the time at work, but other than that I just tend to use Google; I’m not on Facebook or anything like that.