Samantha Tullie

I have worked at the cafe for two years alongside my university studies. I take orders, both in person and over the phone, make drinks, wait tables and wash up. It is a small cafe but can get quite busy and so this has taught me to work well under pressure and in a team. I have also been asked to train new hires, which has given me leadership skills and displayed the confidence the cafe has in me.

I learned valuable coding and teamwork experience, mostly in HTML helping to design webpages. But also helped take part in competitions and bursaries the company was applying for to obtain funding.

I provide support to the shop as needed, primarily during busy hours from 7:30 AM to 1:30 PM on Saturdays. My responsibilities include taking customer orders both in person and over the phone, preparing sandwiches and paninis, and processing payments via cash or card. Additionally, I have been responsible for cashing out at the end of the day.

I trained and worked as a barista. I would engage with customers and take their orders in person on the till system. I also learned how to make both hot and cold drinks professionally and under pressure as the store I worked in was very busy and fast pace most of the time. I would also clear tables and used an industrial dishwasher. This experience taught me to work calmy and well under pressure as well as with others to maximise the efficiency.

I had work experience at Emis Health for one week, they keep the NHS records so this was interesting to see the cyber security aspect. They showed me as much of their databases as they could and how they worked and allowing me to do some work on them myself.

I received a spot on the highly competitive Technology Virtual Insight Programme whilst studying for my A-levels. Due to covid, this was moved online but I learned valuable information about how their company was run, as well as the kind of technology that is used.

I started volunteering here as part of my Duke of Edinburgh gold award and then continued to work for the next year. I worked three classes every Tuesday of different ages and abilities. I would help the teacher show children new activities and lead some independently. This experience encouraged leadership and teamwork.