I've worked in hotels for over 10 years. A friend recommended Premier Inn as a company who genuinely valued their employees and as industry leaders in digital. I was looking for a move that would offer an exciting change but also career progression and even joining as maternity cover, I immediately felt like part of the team with scope to upskill and move to a permanent role.

Career goals

My new role feels like the culmination of the various roles I’ve done on property in previous companies. It’s a role I really want to grow into. Right now it’s all about proving myself to become a bonafide PO but thinking long term, I’d like to get to Product Lead and then, who knows?!

Career development

I was luckily enough to get to shadow POs before I moved into the role and I look for every opportunity to learn from peers and the management team on a daily basis. Agile working is a new methodology for me so I’m looking to learn as much possible about this and can’t wait for the Boot camp training that’s mandatory for all new starters in the digital team.

Personal highs

Ok, as cheesy as it sounds, getting the role of Junior Product Owner was a real moment of  achievement for me. I felt like I’d worked in almost every hotel department but nothing ever really felt like it was the right role and I never felt like I was really using my skills or even really knew what those skills were. Last year I was super unhappy in my job and was really affected by low confidence so much that just the thought of trying to apply for a new job filled me with anxiety, let alone going for an interview.

I worked hard to get to a place where I knew what I had to offer to a company so when I moved to Premier Inn, it was such a relief. I know that a change of scenery can do a world of good but I know that it was down to the company values and general positive vibe from the moment I joined, to the encouragement and support to move to a permanent role that really made the difference.

I always wanted to work for a company that was involved in making a positive contribution for the customer and for the wider community.

Premier Inn is a company where this is actually happening and where everyone is encouraged and supported to be a force for good no matter what we do, from building a website to serving our customers in hotels or restaurants.

I have been working for Premier Inn since 2013 and I like the way the brand itself has been developed during these years. I am proud of the quality of the service we offer to our customers

Career goals 

Definitely is to improve our customer experience. And this means making faster and  even easier to search and book a room in Premier Inn or a table in our Restaurants. But this is only one side of the medal.

My other main goal is to also  improve the development experience, bringing back the engineer mindset in the way we design, build and release new features. The goal is to create architecture and applications that enable the business to serve better our customers and at the same time making the software development experience less painful and more exciting.

Career development 

I would like to become a Software Engineer Manager. I would like to support our developers in their career progression, to provide them an amazing workplace where they feel even more enabled to contribute for the good of the company and our customers and also properly challenged in the job they do every day.

Personal highs

Becoming a father of two lovely and wonderful kids.

I don’t have set career Goals as such, goals are around consistent improvement and consistently, learning new things, which I definitely get here – huge opportunities for learning different functions and new opportunities, I’ve just been promoted. The last 6 months there have been so many roles that have come up, that give so much opportunity for growth.

When I first started I was in the B2B team working on email campaigns, now the team structures have changes I have been taking on technical stuff, now I am a product owner. I was encouraged to go for this role by my Line Manager and Director – they really helped with my progression.

I’ve been focusing on project that I’m working on at the moment for the past year and when that’s completed it will be a huge achievement. In my spare time I train Brazillian Ju-Jitsu.

We went to the DMA awards last night and one of our campaigns won a silver award.

Some Whitbread Colleagues have mentored me, pushing my drive and ambition as they showed me what I can achieve.

During college, I worked in the call centre as a CCC Agent part time, making bookings for our leisure and business customers from 6pm-10pm - 5 days a week.

I started in April 2014, after 4 months I went full time as I finished college. I stayed within the call centre for a further 8 months before being promoted to the Corporate Desk.

Throughout my first year of college, I was working as a Customer Advisor at Argos. My cousin walked into my store not knowing that was my place of work at the time. He asked if I was enjoying the job and that I should consider moving to his company as a call centre agent as he was explaining the benefits and share scheme they had to offer.

After a few weeks I gave his manager my CV and she asked me to come down to the assessment centre and since then I have been a Whitbread employee.

I have always had a passion for digital and manipulating data so from the moment I stepped into the call centre, I made it a habit to ask for reporting ad hoc tasks - i.e. Doing our team stats and rota.

From CCC to the Corporate desk: I needed a job that would challenge me more and required a higher level of customer service. This is where I really stretched my reporting and analysis skills.

From Corporate desk to Solutions team: I needed to build a solid understanding of how our different digital booking channels worked. Being the project manager of building API connections into a Third Party’s booking platform (Direct Connect) as well as being the representative for the

sales team for bugs in our business client’s booking platforms (Business Booker), really helped me achieve my goal and increase my drive to reach the next stage of my career.

From Solutions team to Digital Analytics: I had my eye on this job over a year before I had my interview. This was the area of the company I really wanted to move into since I joined so I done a lot of prep work and shadowing to ensure it was the role for me. The experience of working in a fast-paced environment like London also drove the move from Solutions to Analytics.

I have met a few individuals since being in Whitbread that has not only been a colleague, but they have also been a mentor outside of work. They are the individuals that really pushed my drive and ambition as they showed me what I can achieve.

I also respect the flexibility and the work-life balance Whitbread offers to their employees.

Finally, the ability to stretch yourself and continuously learn more. Whitbread are always offering courses and seminars to help their employees better themselves in their career.

We value our people highly at Whitbread. Why? Because our business is defined by exceptional brands, and it is our people’s commitment to building and growing these brands that keeps us the UK’s leading hospitality business.

So if you join us, you’ll see there’s many ways to develop and paths to follow, satisfying your curiosity and helping you to achieve more than you might have ever expected. Training, secondments or, in Shoaib’s case, shadowing a part of the business you might want to move to helps us to develop our people.

Job shadowing allowed Shoaib to learn more about our dedicated in-house Digital team as he explained: “I spoke to my managers, colleagues and the recruitment team. I was encouraged to request shadowing different departments over in Whitbread Digital, as I wanted an insight on how the departments operated and functioned.”

What followed was a move to become Premier Inn Content Executive, a great move for Shoaib and Whitbread. “Having the opening to work for one of the largest brands in the UK to try and help with driving traffic through creative digital is something that really motivates me,” he said.

I initially joined Premier Inn Guest Relations as a temporary advisor in 2016, before I went travelling. I returned to Whitbread and worked as a Social Media & Marketing Executive for six months, before inevitably returning to Premier Inn Guest Relations in 2017. I relished every minute of working for Premier Inn Guest Relations and gained vast knowledge on Premier Inn as a brand, how we operate and what we stand for.