Helen Helps Homestays (Work Placement Blog)

Look After Me established a Work Placement programme in July 2012 for 12 recruits to have an opportunity to work in a real-life sitation and to utilise their skill set and gain experience. My name is Layla and I am a Work Placement Recruit in the role of publicist. 

For the duration of this work placement, I’ve have been catching up with a few of my fellow team members to see how they feel about working for Look After Me.

This week I catch up with Helen, who is Julia's personal assistant. Working part-time and quite closely aside Julia, Helen is learning many of the administrative tasks associated with running Look After Me. In her third week, so far Helen has entered property data into the website, drafted and sent emails on behalf of Julia, updated customer contact information in Xero (accounting software), organised the photographer for taking product photos for the on-line shop and paid the bills.

Helen believes this placement is moving along nicely, and that we are all getting a lot accomplished. She applied for this position because she wanted some experience to back her up for future jobs and to have something different to focus on. But why apply for a job that you don’t get paid for? Well, Helen doesn’t see it as a negative thing. She simply says: “I’m building experience, knowledge and new skills”.

Her dream job coincides nicely with Look after me as she would like to be working with people whether it’s in the tourism or hospitality industry, or working as a personal assistant in an office environment.

Helen has enjoyed meeting new people, and we all got a chance to get to know one and other. She enjoys marching, and whilst interviewing Helen I found out one thing that the other members wouldn’t know about her. If she could be a paid marching coach, she would do it.

You learn something new every day, and I think that is the essence of this work placement!