British library Business support officer supporting statement
Since graduating from university with my undergraduate degree in French and History and more recently completing a masters with distinction in Imperial History, I have been interested in working in the British cultural and heritage sector.
Part of my current role requires me to provide high quality administrative support to a faced paced and busy customer services team. As a customer services assistant, I contribute to the overall running of my team and ensure the satisfaction of various customers, dealing with their product orders, keeping them up-to-date on any relevant information, such as delivery date changes, offers and our products, example and dealing with a varies queries and requests, both over the phone and via email. I also carry out other ad hoc administrative tasks such as logging complaints regarding ullage and requests for the collection of empty barrels, for example. Studying at university and working in education as a teaching assistant in France and also as a student ambassador with my university, which involved working in outreach work and going into local non-selective schools to assist in history lessons, has enabled me to develop my organisational, time management and administrative skills. During both my academic life and my experience working as a teaching assistant in France, I had to organise meetings with my university colleagues and my superiors at work.
From my experience of academic study, such as working on history dissertations which require thorough and detailed analysis of historical sources and from creating my own surveys and questionnaires for my French thesis, I have developed a sharp attention to detail and my ability to accurately input data and assess both qualitative and quantitative data. Whilst working on my French thesis I carried out my own questionnaire and meticulously input the data in order to get accurate results, which allowed me to draw larger conclusions and distinguished my final piece of work. Attention to detail also came into my work as a student ambassador, when working on a university clearing telephone hotline and plays a large part in my current role in customer services, as carefully and accurately inputting of data at speed is required. This means that I have well developed and acute listening skills, enabling me to work efficiently and effectively, to note all the necessary information in order to process their applications and orders correctly.
I have a strong ability to manage and prioritise various tasks simultaneously and at pace, to consistently meet deadlines. For example, in my current role it is imperative that I prioritise the order in which I place customer orders in order to ensure all deliveries are correctly arranged for their required delivery days. From studying at university, both at undergraduate and postgraduate level, I am very accustomed to working towards multiple, differing deadlines and completing assignments at pace. Studying a joint-honours degree taught me how to prioritise my workload and complete my work with a timely delivery, without impairing the quality of my work. Studying two different courses simultaneously, which possessed different demands and assessment types taught me how to manage my priorities and balance my work on assignments of varying sizes and time limits, to meet my goals by my deadlines. I effectively managed my time to complete assignments at both speed and consistently to the best of my ability. I set myself challenging goals in terms of time limits and maintaining a good and consistent quality of work. I managed and overcame unexpected setbacks, such as lack or inaccessibility to required resources, leading me to seek alternative sources or change my approach in a timely manner to successfully meet my goals and deadlines. Equally, when working on group presentations, academic differences in terms of methods of working or differences in opinions had to be overcome to collaboratively achieve our goals both efficiently and successfully. I successfully maintained enthusiasm for my course and my individual pieces of work, even when working towards competing and challenging deadlines. I completed my assignments in a timely manner and to the best of my ability, which improved as I progressed through my degrees and as the deadlines and tasks assigned increased in difficulty and demand.
I am technologically competent, with an excellent knowledge of and experience using Microsoft Office applications.  From both my time at university and my experience of working as a teaching assistant, I have developed my ability to use technology and have large experience using Microsoft Office programmes such as Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Publisher and Excel. During my university degree I would use Microsoft Word and PowerPoint to complete my assignments, when working on essays, dissertations and presentations, meaning that I have a high proficiency in using these applications. Equally, I am very comfortable using new programmes and databases and enjoy learning how to use new technologies. For example, during my time at university, I learnt how to use certain databases in order to more efficiently find relevant material for my research. I also used technology which was new to me to aid the process of referencing my work, making the outcome of my bibliography more accurate and time efficient as a result. I also have a sufficient and developing knowledge of Microsoft Excel and I am both comfortable navigating new software and programmes and keen to learn new skills necessary for the role. As well as being extremely well developed written skills, I am also comfortable working with numbers and quantitative data. For example, in my current role as a customer services assistant and in my past role working on a university clearing telephone hotline, I manage numbers daily, in terms of product orders and pricing for example. Equally, whilst carrying out my undergraduate French dissertation, I carried out a survey and analysed the resulting quantitative data as evidence to support my arguments.
I have excellent written skills, as well as oral and written communication skills. When working as a language assistant in France I communicated with teachers to plan, prepare and discuss lesson plans and meetings both in written and oral forms of communication. Equally, when working in customer service roles in a hospitality setting, it was imperative for me to communicate clearly and efficiently with my colleagues and the kitchen staff, in order to ensure the smooth running of events, particularly in busy periods. For example, it is vital to be clear about any dietary requirements when serving a meal to a party of around eighty guests to ensure the kitchen can get the required meals out in order and in a timely fashion. I have extremely well developed interpersonal skills and am comfortable liaising with people at all levels. From my time working in hospitality and customer service, I have had a lot of experience working directly with customers, internal departments and external companies in order to achieve the highest quality of service possible. In my current role as a customer services assistant, I liaise with customers, business development managers, and my equivalents in other external companies in order to collaboratively ensure the best quality service in delivered to our customers.
Academically and professionally, I have always worked effectively collaboratively and as a team player to achieve goals and support my colleagues. In a hospitality role, I communicated with colleagues and other teams, such as the kitchen staff, to ensure smooth and efficient events and to provide a premium service to customers. In my current role, my colleagues differ each shift. As such I am comfortable working with changing ideas, am adaptable to new approaches and open minded. These skills also developed working collaboratively at university. When volunteering as a homeless outreach leader at university, it was vital to ensure my team felt comfortable and valued. For example, if someone had a suggestion regarding the distribution route for example, it was important to listen and prove adaptable and open for the best result. I constantly strive to improve myself to perform to the best of my abilities. While assisting in a French school, I was comfortable speaking up to suggest productive and sensible changes and effectively communicated and acted on criticism and advice. For example, I helped colleagues, when I spotted grammatical issues in lessons and they helped me to improve my lessons and contribution to the team and school. When possible I proactively supported colleagues by carrying out extra tasks, such as invigilating exams and taking small groups, so that the teachers increase work with other classes, for example.When it comes to working as part of a team I have been flexible and adaptable in my approach, supporting my colleagues and using their methods of working to achieve our joint goals. For example, I first started working with the customer services department in my current role over the festive period, when they were unable to managed the heightened workload and demand from customers. Equally, in my role as a Visitor Centre Assistant, flexibility is crucial. When working events, such as weddings and dinners, I often multitask as a member of the front of house team, directly serving and liaising with customers to provide the best hospitality service possible, whilst also helping the kitchen staff with their preparation and tidying up. I am open-minded about new ways of working and willing to work on new, various and different tasks appropriate to role and learn new methods and skills in order to do so. As seen from my commitment to academic development, I am equally keen to develop and learn professionally and I like to keep up-to-date with the knowledge and skills required to succeed fully in the job role. I therefore have a very ‘can do’ attitude towards my work and am enthused by ways of learning how to improve the overall work of my team.
I am a creative thinker who is able to use my initiative to develop and improve the efficiency of my work, both individually and when working collaboratively as part of a team. As a Visitor Centre Assistant in my current role, when working our busiest event of the year, I suggested a method of working as part of small teams to collaboratively serve customers, with one colleague serving and the other dealing with money, which successfully increased out efficiency and effectivity in serving customers and ultimately improved customer satisfaction. Similarly, in the customer services team at my current company, I used my initiative and sought out activities and tasks I could do to improve team efficiency. I collaborated with other teams, working outside my main role as a visitor centre assistant, to help manage calls and orders over the festive period. I ensured more calls, orders and promotions were completed. We were recognised for the company team of the year award based on our work over the festive period.
As a customer services assistant and when working as a student ambassador on a telephone hotline during clearing, it was vital that my administrative work was inline with my company’s and the university’s procedures and policies. I carried out a level of information management, ensuring personal information was handled properly and securely and was equally stored and discarded appropriately, in order to adhere to these policies. In my various roles as a Student Ambassador and a teaching assistant in France, it was crucial that I worked with discretion, sensitivity and decisiveness, particularly when dealing with sensitive issues, such as personal information, student’s grades and discipline, for example. Equally, on one occasion, a colleague repeatedly failed to attend arranged joint lessons, leaving me to lead lessons on my own. In order to overcome this issue and avert any potential professional conflict, I arranged a meeting with my colleague and clearly, diplomatically and firmly approached the problem, resulting in a clear resolution of our problem and to consistent successfully carried out collaborative lessons in the future.
I believe I would be a suitable candidate for the role of Business Support Officer at the British Library, as I would provide high quality administrative and operational support to the team. I have various experiences working as part of a team, have excellent interpersonal, communication and listening skills and have a keen interest in the British Library work and initiatives, as well as desire to learn and develop professionally.
I would like to thank you for your consideration and I look forward to hearing from you.