Building my career: Jon's story
Jon Gordon
Senior Direct Marketing Executive
In 2011, I took a leap of faith moving from a management role at a large Tesco store to taking calls for car and home insurance in the call centre. I knew I wanted a change of career and I put the hard work in from the get go. I managed to quickly secure a team leader role, which allowed me to use my management experience in leading a team of 12 Customer Service Representatives.
A few years before that, I studied for a degree in television and video production at university with the aim of making a career in the media sector. However, a few things happened in my personal life, so the prospect of having to move to London and work for pennies, meant I had to re-evaluate what was realistic.
I never lost my love for the creative world though and I continued to try and keep myself involved in video production at LV=. I had a number of opportunities to get involved in some work on the side of my day to day team leader responsibilities. This opened up the door to working with people in different areas of the business who I’d never been involved with. I think this is where my journey into marketing started.
Taking the initiative
I came across an internal LV= programme in 2013 which was a 2 year rotation scheme giving me broad functional and business experience across the Life business. I saw it as a chance for me to explore new areas I’d never considered looking into.
After a lengthy application process I was shortlisted for an assessment day where I had to pitch a pre-planned idea to the Execs and have a one to one interview with Richard Rowney, Life MD at the time. Unfortunately, when it came to the programme I was unsuccessful. However, during my feedback session, Richard could sense that I was focused on a marketing route. At the time, there weren’t any marketing positions available, so a number of months passed and in the meantime I continued to build up my network, meeting more people who I felt would be good to get on their radar.
Everyone managed to take time out of their busy schedules to sit and chat with me for half an hour. I learned not to assume that people don’t have time for you, even those that are senior in the business.
New beginnings
Finally, in 2015, I secured a secondment in the Marketing team. It was the chance to prove myself and show it’s as much about attitude as it is knowledge and experience. I wasn’t a marketing expert but I had the motivation and willingness to learn and build my knowledge quickly. Three months later, I found myself in a permanent position and became a Direct Marketing Executive. Best of all, my responsibilities were to run the broadcast channels so I was working on things I genuinely loved and had experience in.
4 years down the line and I’ve been a Senior Direct Marketing Executive for just over 3 years. I’ve attended a number of courses and workshops which have been funded by LV= and it’s made such a difference. There are so many people who don’t realise what’s out there to help you develop yourself - you just need to ask. Last year I completed a Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing with the Institute of Direct Marketing, which LV= funded for me. I can’t praise LV= enough for the support I’ve had in developing my career.
Why do I still love working at LV=?
The teams, the people, the fantastic culture. Our Diversity and Inclusion is great and it is a really accepting place to work. Our team has a flexible approach and my managers understand that it is important to balance work and family life. They really do treat people like family.
What am I passionate about?
Wellbeing. We have onsite Reiki and relaxation sessions that I can book for free. Wellbeing is taken seriously and I am a huge advocate of this. We all have stresses in life, some that we just try and keep to ourselves so it’s good to know we work for a business that not only promotes a healthy mind and body but actively does something about it.
If you would like to know more about opportunities at LV= then please contact the recruitment team - LV.Recruitment@lv.com.