We caught up with Sarah to learn about what sales is really like for women, her involvement in our internal Muslim Network, and how shadowing colleagues across the business has helped her explore new roles.
What graduate scheme are you on?
I’m on the Inside Sales graduate programme in BT Group’s B2B unit.
What attracted you to apply to BT Group?
The company looked like it had many opportunities to be able to try and change once you joined. It looked like a good company to start of your career – a well-known and respected company.
What learning and development opportunities have you been offered throughout the graduate scheme?
I have been able to reach out to different parts of the company and have been offered shadowing experience which has been very useful for me to get a taster of different roles. It has also allowed me to witness the vast number of opportunities that are available at BT that I didn’t realise even existed! This shadowing has also allowed me to explore different skills to my day-to-day role. In my current role, I have been able to gain an increased number of accounts, which has given me the opportunity to constantly learn and push myself. Each account I work with is different, thus I never feel like I am cruising, which is what I enjoy.
What activities have you got involved in outside your role?
I am the Events Lead for the internal Muslim Network. I have recently taken on this role and have been able to organise and execute my first round of events around our main UK offices. I am planning to arrange more events and trying to make as much of an impact as I can for the network. I also have engaged with different teams within a different business unit to shadow their teams to get a taster of what they did. A few colleagues and I were also lucky enough to be able to make a video for the Inside Sales Graduate Scheme to be used internally and externally.
There’s a perception that sales is a cut-throat environment. How would you describe the sales culture and environment here?
The sales culture and environment is nothing like what is typically described of sales. Everyone will go above and beyond to assist you when you have challenges, making it a very inclusive and comfortable environment. Also, colleagues are very motivating and encouraging of each other to excel and perform to their targets, which drives you to win and close business. The stereotype of sales made me apprehensive when I first joined, however BT has definitely proved that, that negative environment doesn’t exist here! There is a big drive in sales to be more diverse from a gender perspective, so it is great to see and talk to many women who are in sales about their experiences and their journeys.
What do you enjoy most about working in a global sales environment?
The best part for me is being able to work with big global customers, who are very important, which highlights the scale and role that you have to make an impact. Additionally, you have the ability to work with people from all around the world and meet so many different people, which is so fun!
