My career journey: Rhiannon Nightingale

We’ve had the pleasure of working with Rhiannon for some time now. She began her career in our head office, then moved over to our Samsung team after three years. She’s been on our Samsung team ever since and has been in her current role as the Head of Product Training Strategy since October. With such an impressive career progression journey, especially as a female in the tech industry, we wanted to hear more from Rhiannon and how she’s got to where she is now.

If you have five minutes and want to gain some intel and advice on how you can progress in your career then keep reading.

I’ve been with Blue Square now for 11 years. My career started in Blue Square’s HQ and then, when the opportunity to progress over to Samsung came up, I went for it. I’ve had a further 5 roles since then:

• Client Services Executive (Blue Square) April 2013 – April 2015 (2 years, 1 month)
• Senior Client Services Executive (Blue Square) April 2015 – Jun 2016 (1 year, 3 months)
• Training Operations Executive (Samsung) Jun 2016 – Jul 2017 (1 year, 2 months)
• Retail Programmes Executive (Samsung) Jul 2017 – Oct 2018 (1 year, 4 months)
• Online Training Manager (Samsung) Oct 2018 – Sep 2019 (1 year)
• Senior Online Training Manager (Samsung) Sep 2019 – Oct 2023 (4 years, 2 months)
• Head of Product Training Strategy (Samsung) Oct 2023 – Present (9mo)

Mostly by getting involved in wider areas of the business, asking the right questions and getting it wrong so I could get it right the next time. The experience just came over time, persisting with work streams and processes that I didn’t understand at first and asking for support and throwing myself into it. Being collaborative and identifying opportunities to support others in the business is also a great way to build up experience in other areas and get involved in a variety of projects. I put a lot of pride into performing well and always try to learn from my mistakes. Being dependable and passionate can go a long way.

You’re only growing when you feel uncomfortable. You develop the most when you’re outside your comfort zone, so push yourself to keep moving, even if it scares you. Over the years I’ve learnt to take risks and lean into bigger opportunities as they arise. As long as you can accept that you won’t know it all at once and you’re open to learning and expanding your skill set as you go, you can make a success out of anything you take on. Luckily, I work with some incredible people who’ve been able to remind me of this and give me a nudge when I need it most!

11 years is a long time to stay with a company but I can honestly say I’ve never been bored. The pace is fast, you need to be agile but there’s always something to learn, new people to meet and new challenges to get stuck into.

I really enjoy my day-to-day work as well as the people who I work with and the culture is unique. I’ve always felt really supported by Blue Square, in the work environment and my personal life. Even though it sounds cliché, the people really do play a large part in my length of service. I work with immediate and wider teams that inspire me every day with their passion and innovative thinking.

No two days are ever the same and I love having the creative control within my current role to make suggestions to the business on how we can grow the areas I work on.

Lean into your strengths. You don’t need to be an expert at everything; the most successful teams are those that have diverse skill sets and you’ll have strengths and expertise you can shine with. That being said, there’s always something you can improve and learn from so don’t be afraid to ask managers and those around you for open and honest feedback on where you can elevate.

Blue Square are also very people centric and they see a lot of value in investing in employee development so if you ever have the opportunity to expand your qualifications or expertise, you should utilise it. Put a case forward for how it’ll help you add value to the business and go for it!

If you’d like to join our dream team, take a look at our current roles here.