My Work Experience at Thomas Smith Fasteners

Hi, my name is Annabel and I’m in my second year at Lancaster University. During my three month Summer break, Thomas Smith Fasteners gave me the opportunity to work for them full time in the Sales office. During my time here, I have gained some valuable skills that I can transfer both into my studies and my future career.

During my time at Thomas Smith Fasteners, I processed sales orders, communicated with customers over the phone and via email, and answered customer queries about the services we provide. This boosted my confidence and ability to communicate in a professional and efficient manner, whilst still maintaining a rapport with the customers to boost sales and improve customer experience.

I also frequently created purchase orders and conversed with suppliers on at least a weekly basis. This required me to attentively keep an eye on our stock levels and use my initiative when deciding when to order stock and how much money to spend.

Maths has always been a weaker skill for me, but my experience at Thomas Smith Fasteners has greatly improved this. In my role, I calculated gross profit, completed our end-of-day banking every day, and used bulk prices to calculate the price of an individual item. These tasks have boosted an essential skill that I can transfer into other roles, my studies, and everyday life.

Moreover, my role included a lot of marketing and outreach work. I experimented social media marketing, sending out emails to prospect customers and ringing past customers to discuss their needs.

I am extremely lucky and privileged to have been given this opportunity to work in a busy, fast-paced workplace during my university Summer break. Thank you to Thomas Smith Fasteners for allowing me to gain an insight into how businesses work, and I would love to be back someday!