Name: Olivia Lewis
Age: 24
Job title: Finance assistant
Company & location: Jus-Rol in Knutsford, Cheshire
Education: Philosophy & Religion to Certificate Level at Manchester University. I left uni when I realised it wasn’t quite right for me (I studied the wrong thing really) and started to pursue a career.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? I’ve wanted to be so many things over the years! The earliest thing I remember is wanting to be a doctor when I was in nursery. I liked the idea of knowing so many different things, and it certainly helped that my childhood GP was lovely.
Why did you decide to go for a career in food & drink? I’ve always found the industry quite interesting, especially from a technical point of view as I have food allergies.
How we produce food, how we label food and how we prepare food has a huge impact on my day-to-day. I also absolutely love cooking, so working in an environment all about making delicious products and recipes is exciting.
“I was hired as temporary general help during a busy Christmas period and ended up becoming a permanent member”
Explain your job to us in a sentence (or two): I work as part of our finance team, doing lots of jobs. My main daily tasks revolve around processing our sales and purchase invoices, which includes a lot of managing our stock.
What does a typical day look like for you? I’ll get in around 8.45 and dedicate my morning to working through the most important of my daily tasks.
My afternoons are usually a little more flexible and I’ll look at what needs doing that particular day. This can be anything from preparing customer statements, reconciling accounts, answering any supplier or customer queries, or anything else that comes up! There’s always something to do.
Tell us how you went about applying for your job: My application process was slightly atypical; I was hired as temporary general help during a busy Christmas period a couple of years ago.
I ended up getting on really well here and became a permanent member of the Jus-Rol finance team off the back of that.
What’s the best part about working for a food & drink company? I love working somewhere with such a strong food culture. It means we’re always getting to try yummy creations, particularly those our innovation lead makes!
But more seriously, I love being involved in getting products people love to them. I get to feel like I’m part of making people’s pies, sweet treats and so many other wonderful creations happen.
And what’s the biggest misconception people have about working in food & drink? I don’t think everybody understands how food safety focused working in food & drink is. It’s a big part of our culture and training.
What advice would you give to other young people looking to get into the food & drink industry? Get yourself out there and remember that opportunities can present themselves in the funniest of ways.
What’s your ultimate career dream? Predominately, I’d like to keep training in finance and work my way up the career ladder. The fun thing about Jus-Rol is that you learn so much from the departments around you. I want to take my understanding of technical safety, of what we’re doing in marketing, in sales, and use that to help me be the best accountant I can be one day.
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