With the end of my degree looming and the promise of final year exams soon to be over I decided it was probably a good time to start thinking about life after university; or as we like to call it the real world. Luckily I stumbled across a job advert on Facebook of all places. This advert stated that Accommodation Windsor Limited was looking for an Office Junior to help with administration, marketing, accounts, sales and much more besides. I thought what a great opportunity that would be to try my hand at a bit of everything. So I responded with my CV attached and waited patiently, but not altogether optimistically!
I didnt have to wait very long, the next day I received a call asking if I would be interested in having a phone interview for the position, which of course I was. Fifteen minutes later, the friendly woman on the other end of the phone told me that she thought it had gone really well and I would hear shortly about having an interview in person. A week later I was in the office of Accommodation Windsor for an interview, which was (to my relief!) very relaxed and informal and 2 weeks later I began working as an Office Junior.
When people ask me what Im doing now Ive finished my degree they usually expect me to say either one of 2 things, looking for a job or doing something related to the environment, my degree being a BSc in Geography. They are always surprised therefore when I tell them that I am working full time for an accommodation company. When they ask why I was interested in the job I tell them that I wanted to gain experience of working in a busy office environment where I could learn as much about the different aspects of running a company as I can. And I definitely picked the right job for that!
My first week at Accommodation Windsor was a blur of new information and new faces. I was shown how to check people into the Bed and Breakfast, how to work the databases, how to create, pay and file invoices, how to check the keys back in everyday and so much more that Im still trying to remember! Now I have a long list of daily tasks, my favourite of which is checking people into Alma House B&B because I get to chat to so many different people from all over the world.
Each day I walk into the town centre during my lunch hour and see that it is always buzzing with people either shopping or sight-seeing. As far as places to sit and eat your lunch on a sunny (or even rainy!) afternoon youd be hard pressed to beat the benches outside Windsor Castle. I am curious how long it will take before I stop feeling amazed at how beautiful a place Windsor is!
I am still getting to grips with some aspects of the job and learning new things everyday and of course I still make some mistakes now and then but I always go home at the end of a long day feeling satisfied and happy that I was lucky enough to get such a lovely job in such a lovely place.
