Jack Fountain

What did you do before you joined ILG?

Before I joined ILG, I was at school doing the sixth form part of my education. I was studying business studies, citizenship and sociology. As well as being in full-time education, I worked part-time in a shoe shop as a Sales Assistant. After that, up until a few months before I started here, I worked as a Visual Merchandiser. This involved going into various shopping centres and supermarkets all around Crawley and checking the stock of the many companies we merchandised for.

Why did you join ILG?

I have always found the concept of warehousing fascinating as there is a lot more to it than everyone thinks. For a few years before I started I had always found it interesting, so when I saw the advert I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. A lot of my family members are working, or have worked, in warehousing before and I believe this is where my passion for the occupation stems from.

What does your job involve?

I work on one of ILG’s larger contracts which is the Trend account. Trend is an odd one out in comparison to the other contracts that ILG have because it is all about manufactured parts, e.g. heavy valves, electrical appliances or equipment, and much more. We pick, pack and ship these items every single day, in that order as well. Because I work on the export side of the department, I constantly deal with invoice orders that must be done correctly without fail. Invoice jobs are orders which go to certain countries that need special documentation in order to leave our country and enter theirs. I know the whole of the department well enough to work all over, but I head up the exporting of goods.

What do you like most about your job?

To be entirely honest, it may be a silly answer but everyone knows, I like everything about my job. The highlights of my job are being able to see myself get better and better as time goes on. This includes looking at the size and proportion of an order and knowing straight away what size box it needs, whereas when I first started I didn’t have a clue. I like all the people I work with, the contract I work on, the people who run the contract for Trend, everything.

“Because I am so passionate about my job, whether we have a normal day of orders or an extreme 300+, I will always give 110% to the team in order to get my export work finished and then go over and help the UK team out.”

How would you describe the opportunities for promotion?

When it comes down to the opportunities for promotion, I would say they are very fair. By this I mean, they don’t just get handed to anybody, you have to work hard and prove yourself. For me, just doing the norm is not enough, I’d much rather go the extra mile and help others along the way. I joined ILG as a Warehouse Apprentice and have recently been promoted to Warehouse Section Manager.

How would you describe the training you have received?

I will forever be thankful for the training I received because I was trained by some of the Trend masters. Because of that training, I was up to date with pretty much the whole contract before I even passed my six-month probation. This helped me out massively because I was able to start passing my knowledge onto new colleagues who also started working on the Trend account. Since starting I have trained six or seven people, and they have gone on to pass the knowledge I gave them to other new staff.

What advice would you give to anyone considering applying to ILG?

“Well, take me for example, I have never worked in anything even remotely similar to warehousing but I can honestly say it is the best career change I will ever make.”

It didn’t sound anything like something I’d enjoy, but look how wrong I was! My advice to anyone is to apply because I promise you that you will not regret it.