Mark

Why did you join Marshalls?

I was working as a heating and air conditioning engineer but due to changes at home I needed a job with better work life balance. A job came up at Marshalls which was local to me, with a longstanding company, a good salary and a great prospect and so in 2015 I joined as a Technical Advisor!.

Your journey to your current role as Pavement Engineering Manager

As a Technical Advisor you needed to know all the rules, regulations and standards around making, providing and selling product. I loved using that knowledge and getting stuck into advice enquiries where you were looking at things that had gone wrong at the customer end. When the role of Pavement Engineering Manager came about, I applied, and it’s been such a great opportunity to step up and share my knowledge and experience in a leadership role.

What are the top three things you have learned in your Marshalls career so far?

• Technical knowledge

• Relationship building

• How much enjoyment and pride I would feel – there was no way I could have known that driving past a project I had even a small hand in would make me feel so proud and give me such a thrill. It’s like you belong to that project and a small part of it belongs to you.

 

If someone is considering a role in design and engineering, what are the key skills?

Accuracy is key! Whatever underpins what you’re doing, you need it to be right. You can’t substitute competence with confidence. Communication. It’s all well and good having an idea or concept but if you don’t or can’t communicate that, all it will ever be is a concept or an idea. Be open! There will always be someone who knows better or more or just different. That input of fresh ideas and ways of doing things can make you better too and help you to not just do the same things over and over.

What have been your highlights of working at Marshalls?

Getting Victoria Square in Birmingham over the line... It’s a highlight every time I go to a city or town where I’ve worked on a project and you can see it and say, I made that happen in some way.

What do you think Marshalls does well?

I’ve worked for a lot of companies that have ‘values’ and ‘statements’ that they say they live by. Marshalls is the only company that I have worked for that actually lives those values. When Marshalls says that it does the right thing, for the right reasons, in the right way, it’s true and I have so many examples of where I have seen just that. Whether it’s with customers, colleagues or even product development. I am always impressed by the integrity I see.