Teachnical Support Advisor Review

In my role I provide technical support to customers. This involves troubleshooting customers issues they may have, providing information, generating sales leads to generate revenue for the business and also caring for the customers, making sure we are a good representation of what Sage believes in. I am cross trained which means I support 2 different products, 50Payroll Uk and Sage Payroll IE. It is my job to make sure customers are looked after and that our strong relationships with our customers continues, this is important as we are a SaaS company, so we rely on continued subscriptions to succeed.

I have learned many things during my apprenticeship. This has led me to develop lots of new skills. I have developed teamworking skills, interpersonal skills, how to have a positive tone, how to operate with a professional manner, how to troubleshoot, how to deal with conflict, how to deal with challenge, Irish payroll, Uk payroll, how to navigate systems with ease, how to pitch sales, how to build rapport with customer and how to use all available resources to be efficient for the customers.

I enjoy my program but I think staying positive mentally is probably the hardest part of the job. The typical working week is very stressful and on top of that I find there is a lot of college work that adds to the stress, but with the college work I feel I could manage it if it was spread out right. The main reason I enjoy my job is that I have an amazing team around me, my colleagues are lovely, motivating and generally fun to be around and I also have a lovely manager who seems to care about me.

I feel like the structure of the program is pretty solid, however the way the stats are introduced is quite challenging. I feel that if the stats were either tighter from the start of when you go on the phones after classroom training or that they were raised till later on in the apprenticeship and came down more gradually. The college side of things is generally ran well, but the time spent on corrections outside of the time given is a little unfair, however I do understand it should benefit us come the end of the apprenticeship.

I receive lots of support at Sage. There are many support channels which range from my mentor, my coaches which spend countless hours supporting us, our manager who cares for us and helps us with our needs. On the college side of things I have Carren and Amanda who support me with my college work and queries about that side of the apprenticeship. I also have my colleagues on my team who are always there for me if I need them.

As I explained there briefly I have my mentors Carren and Amanda who help me with any concerns with the work or just the college itself. They spend a lot of time making sure our work is at a high standard, providing feedback on every piece of our work. However I think there could be improves made to make new apprentices lives easier, which is just for reminders for pieces of work, as sometimes we do not know what is needed of us.

I believe that the qualification through my training provider northern skills group helps me perform better by improved my business knowledge, applicable to all businesses. This is because not only do I work within a business but I support our customers which are other businesses, the training helps me be more knowledgeable and provide a better service for the people that ring up. It also helps me understand more about my own business, helping me to better portray the businesses values.

There are lots of extra-curricular activities to get involved in at my work, the main ones being the apprentice calls where we have colleagues at Sage talk about their journey and how we can do the same, and then also the live webinars usually hosted by our MD Sabby Gill, but there are also many other activities that can be found on the hub, or are emailed to you. Although I don't often use them, its nice to know there is lots available.

No

Sage is a great company to work for. It is a great learning opportunity as it is rare to find a job at such a big and successful company, and there is also a great bunch of people I work with, but I find the job really stressful, although I get lots of feedback from my coaches telling me how well I am doing, I never feel like I'm good enough, and the stress of the job gets to me sometimes. I just care too much about their well being to encourage them to work here, in case it did affect them negatively.

Firstly, don't expect it to be easy, its not only one of the hardest things you will have done mentally, but you have to be prepared to work very hard. Consider you other options closely, make a decision on whether you value wellbeing or wealth. Research the company externally to see if its the right place for you. Be open minded, be strong, be punctual, professional and most importantly show them why they need you in the company.