Name: Charlie Sims
Age: 30
Job title: Head of sales
Company & location: Prodigy Snacks, London
Education: Advanced apprenticeship in sporting excellence – University of Bath, BSC Accounting & Finance – University of Glamorgan
Why did you decide to go for a career in food? Food and drink are big passion points of mine and I am a proper foodie, however I actually grew up in an environment where I was exposed to fmcg from a young age. Coupled with the fact that I worked in lots of bars/restaurants whilst I was studying, moving into this space just felt like a natural and exciting progression.
Explain your job to us in a sentence (or two): I am fortunate enough to sell delicious chocolate treats to customers all over the world.
What does a typical day look like for you? This is actually a pretty difficult question to answer, because my role in a bigger business would look quite different. The predominant focus is to always be engaging with customers, on both existing and new prospects, maintaining and building great relationships, and introducing our product range to as many relevant buyers as possible. Reality of it is, in a young business you have to work cross-functionally and be prepared to roll your sleeves up and get stuck into helping other departments and functions when needed.
Tell us about how you went about applying for your job. The application process for Prodigy was quite straightforward and really enjoyable, too. I have been either side of the table in interviews before involving two to three stages, demanding sometimes complex preparation and case studies, which can not only add to the nerves of the process but mean you end up not seeing the best version of the candidate. I don’t really believe in those sorts of processes in our industry for a role in sales, as I believe you can get a pretty good feel for someone’s work ethic and personality over a good-quality conversation and a coffee.
That’s exactly what it was like going through the process to join Prodigy, interviewing with Sameer [Vaswani, CEO and founder] and the rest of the leadership team. We bonded over our mutual love of street food and cocktails and were able to have a really good-quality conversation. I am really grateful for that day, as it gave me a platform to grow. Needless to say the past few years have been challenging with the pandemic, but being made to feel comfortable throughout the interview process and empowered within the driving seat as head of sales having not worked in an SME previously says a lot about the company culture at Prodigy!
“My role in a bigger business would look quite different”
What’s the best part about working for a food company? The exciting thing about working in food and drink for me is the innovation. All brands, no matter what age or size, are always looking to bring the next big thing to market. Our founders Sameer and Neena are innovators in the purest of forms. I love being part of the R&D process, which means eating lots of tasty samples, having roundtable discussions as a team and working together to bring them to life. It then feels even sweeter when you then see the products land on the shelf!
And what’s the biggest misconception people have about working in food & drink? I think the biggest misconception about working in food (and it always makes me laugh) is when you have a great product and are talking with someone who doesn’t work in food… They say, ‘ah you should sell this to retailer XYZ’, as if innovation just falls on to supermarket shelves. Definitely not that straightforward, and there is a lot more to it than meets the eye!
What advice would you give to other young people looking to get into the food & drink industry? Go for it. It is a brilliant place to learn and it is full of opportunity. You might start in sales and end in finance. You might start in marketing and end up in employee wellbeing. You might join the industry and decide it isn’t for you. Regardless of the outcome, you’ll have fun along the way, meet great people, and it’s an excellent place to learn about how businesses work and develop life skills.
What’s your ultimate career dream? Definitely to run my own business!
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