My food & drink job: Lizzie Douse, account manager, Birds Eye

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Lizzie Hendon birds eye

Name: Lizzie Douse

Age: 27

Job title: Senior national account manager

Company & location: Birds Eye, Leeds

Education: Professional Practice in Management at Sheffield Hallam University

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? I always aspired to be an actress, but my performance in drama classes quickly made me realise that perhaps it wasn’t the career for me!

Both of my parents have had careers in sales and marketing, so I grew up being interested in these fields, which was probably my main influence for getting into fmcg at a young age.

“If sales start to fall behind, it’s my job to bring forward solutions as to how we’ll plug the gap”

Why did you decide to go for a career in food and drink? After doing work experience with an accounting firm and business firm in high school, I knew that I wanted get into the working world as soon as possible, so I decided to go down the degree apprenticeship route with a large food & drink manufacturer Nestlé.

I’m very passionate about food, and believing in what I’m selling is very important to me, so naturally food & drink felt like the perfect fit.

Explain your job to us in a sentence (or two): I help to fuel the nation with nutritious and delicious frozen food – working closely with retailers to get Birds Eye products on to shelves, executing displays in the right way to inject excitement into the freezer aisle.

Birds Eye Masterbrand range shot

What does a typical day look like for you? No two days are the same in fmcg. However, I spend the majority of my time working with my customers on delivering promotional plans.

I also need to keep my own team at Birds Eye informed on how sales are performing versus forecast to make sure we’re delivering the best outcomes for customers and our own business. If sales start to fall behind, it’s my job to bring forward solutions as to how we’ll plug the gap.

Tell us how you went about applying for your job: I found an advert for the job on LinkedIn. I often buy Birds Eye products and thought a career change into frozen food could be a great way to expand my commercial understanding and broaden the experiences I’d learnt in my previous company. I applied via LinkedIn, submitted my CV, was invited for an interview and the rest is history!

What’s the best part about working for a food & drink company? Taking our delicious food to the buyers and seeing how much they enjoy the food we produce. I believe in our products, which helps buyers believe in them too.

And what’s the biggest misconception people have about working in food & drink? That you need to be a tough, strong leader to be able to succeed. My work style is direct but predominantly friendly, which has only helped me in getting to where I am today.

What advice would you give to other young people looking to get into the food & drink industry? Try and find other young people who have followed a career path and have a good conversation with them and their experiences. I’m always open for a chat for anyone that wants to reach out.

Also practice your interview techniques: there are loads of tools on the internet to support with this.

What’s your ultimate career dream? To be a successful, female, senior leader in the fmcg industry.