Friday 23 January 2015

The Apprentice Strikes Again!

As I’m sure many of you know, 2014 saw the airing of the tenth series of the successful BBC show The Apprentice. Here at Jonny’s Sister, we have our own Lord Sugar! Jane loves to take on new apprentices, finding that their ‘youthful’ take on things brings a lot to the table, benefitting all aspects of the company.
(Holding my favourite letter cushion!)

*Drum roll please*

My name is Martha and I am the resident Blogger at Jonny’s Sister. Since the company started in 2005 Jane has taken on five apprentices- me being number five! Since the last apprentice related blog post, Hannah has moved up to London to work for a cosmetic company, Lisa has just completed her apprenticeship, Leanne is nearly there and Shannon has taken on the incredibly demanding role of Office Manager!

Unlike large companies, being an apprentice here is a little different- and far nicer! There is no coffee duty (that’s what we have Alec for- sorry!), no rushing about after the ‘big boss’ and no hiding in the shadows. Having been a part of the JS team for a mere three months, I remember my first day well. I pulled up on the driveway, turned off my engine and sat nervously, waiting for the clock to turn to 10:00... I tapped my fingers, checked my messages and then waited. What on earth was I worrying about? At 9:57 Jane walked out of the cabin and waved frantically at me, encouraging me to come out and get going! My first day was busy, meeting everybody properly and being shown around, followed by a brief introduction to various office tasks. It’s safe to say I went home exhausted.

Fellow Apprentice Leanne, hard at work!
When people ask me what it’s like being an apprentice I would say that it may seem challenging at times, but it’ll be worth it in the end. I am still unsure as to what I would like to do when I finish my apprenticeship, whether I’ll find somewhere new, or I’ll be promoted to Shannon’s deputy- nudge nudge. The beauty of an apprenticeship is that you get to try a bit of everything, so hopefully by the end of it you’ll know what you want to do; I have full faith in this concept hoping that next December I will be certain of which path I would like to take. Speaking of December, Christmas 2014 was a bit of a shock; it was the busiest year since Jonny’s Sister started and we had the largest amount of temporary staff, so it's safe to say that the atmosphere was buzzing! 

Since September I feel as though I have already learnt so much. Jane believes that ‘once you stop learning it’s time to move on’; we are encouraged to work hard and strive to reach our goals and push past our personal boundaries. Going from college to work life, it’s a bit of a shock... The long days and constant push, but I would recommend it to anybody. Get out of your comfort zone and dip your toes into the pool of ‘the grownup world’; not only do you have the support of your mentors, but you are almost certain to have a fab boss like Jane to give you a helping hand!

Tuesday 6 January 2015

Happy New Year!

We can’t believe it’s that time again- we want to take a moment to say a great big happy new year to everybody and we hope that you all had a fabulous Christmas!

Here at JS we all love the festive season; full shelves, the constant hustle and bustle of people singing ‘jingle bells’ and the chocolates on the office table! Despite the feeling of relief when it’s all over, Christmas 2014 was a good one for everybody. This year we had the most temps to date, we feel like we packed hundreds of ‘BAKED BY KATE’ cake tins, and sold over 1500 Rudolf Christmas sacks- who knew there were that many lucky children in the world!?


To celebrate the success of 2014 we felt that nothing would do the trick better than nibbles and some champers. Here are some pictures to show what we got up to!




 

Although January always brings some relief from the Christmas mania, it is still sad to say goodbye to our Christmas elves and to tidy away the tinsel and baubles for another year. But forget the January blues as during 2015 you will be seeing lots of new and exciting things from Jonny’s Sister….so watch this space!