Never too late for a change of career - In celebration of National Graduate Week

In celebration of National Graduate Week, we are sharing stories of our amazing graduates, past and present, here at Sage, starting with Helen Drew.

Our Graduate programme is inclusive, and not just for those of you who have recently graduated. Helen joined the Graduate programme at Sage in 2021, but originally joined Sage in December 2005. In this article, you can learn more about her amazing story, and tips for those of you thinking about a career change.

I started working at Sage in December 2005 as a Technical Support Agent for TAS Software, and over the years I have supported a handful of different Sage products.

I really enjoyed having one on one conversations with customers and I loved the feeling of getting a customer’s day back on track by finding them a solution or making their life easier by teaching them how to save time by using our products. However, during the pandemic, like most people I had a lot of time to reflect on my life and my career and I knew after 15 years it was time find my next step outside of Technical Support.

I was apprehensive as I had been in the role for so long. I was worried about my ability to learn new skills, so I talked to my manager and she was very encouraging and suggested going for a secondment in the HRP outsource payroll team, who needed help processing payrolls and cleaning up data before the department closed the following year.

HRP was a good mix of being something close to my skillset so that I wasn’t too intimidated but also enough outside if my comfort zone that it felt like a challenge. My new manager and the rest of the team were really welcoming and supportive, and I quickly got into the swing of things. My time with HRP was a great confidence building experience and as it started coming to an end, I was ready to find my next challenge. I knew wanted to stay at Sage as it has been a great company to work for and so my manager encouraged me to look at the vacancies board and see if there was anything that piqued me interest.

Through working so closely with customers over the years I was particularly interested in the way Sage gathers and analyses customer feedback to improve our customer’s journey so when I started looking at vacancies board, I was especially interested in roles within the area of Customer Experience. When I saw the advert for a Customer Experience Graduate role I was really intrigued as it sounded like a great fit, but I was not sure I would fit the criteria as I graduated in 2004 in a non-STEM degree. The Talent Acquisition team were very helpful with any queries I had, and Vicky checked and confirmed I would still be eligible to apply. I was nervous going into the program, but I was really put at ease in my first week by my new manager and the early careers community who are amazing.

I have been loving the process of learning and I have felt really supported by my team while also having the freedom to explore different aspects of Customer Experience. I have had an amazing year in the Graduate program so far, and it has been really satisfying to start taking ownership over projects and contribute toward my team goals. I thoroughly recommend the Sage Early Careers program and I’m so glad I took the leap!

My top tips for anyone thinking of making a career change at Sage:

• Speak to your manager; they can offer a lot of advice and practical help. For example, if you’re like me and didn’t initially know what you want to do you, they can arrange for you to spend some development time shadowing someone from other departments. Your manager wants you to succeed and to be happy in your job.
• Don’t be afraid to reach out to the Early Careers team! Everyone I’ve spoken to has been so forthcoming answering all my questions and helped to point me in the right direction.

Helen Drew, Graduate Customer Experience