From People Planner to Finance and forklift driving in between, Josh Pollok turned his COVID downtime into a learning experience..

Feb 19 2021

Josh Pollok joined FCTG in 2019 as part of the People Planner team. Being one of the first members of the then brand new team, Josh’s previous role aimed to engage, educate and support Team Leader’s to effectively rostering for their store. As stores and brands closed, his workload began to shrink and Josh was stood down in May 2020 before later being made redundant . 


Leaving his role in the Peopleworks team gave Josh the chance to try out some new things. 


“I got myself a forklift licence and did a lot of manual work towards the end of 2020 - a very different work day to what I was used to at Flight centre HQ!” he recalls.

“At the time, so many people were being stood down across our industry and many others so jobs were limited and I knew I had to look at different ways to make money and upskill.” 


As the new year approached, so too did the opportunity to apply for a completely different role as an accountant in United Finance. Although Josh had previously studied Accounting as part of his Business degree, what attracted Josh most to the new role was the opportunity to experience a different side of the business, while continuing to strengthen his relationships with stores. 


“I really enjoyed the FCTG culture during my previous role, and I'd made a lot of good relationships. Rejoining the culture and reconnecting with all the friends I had made was definitely a big motive for me to apply.”


January 2021 saw Josh come back to the family in his new role as an accountant, 9 months after his redundancy. 


While he has only been with FCTG for a relatively short time, Josh can still reflect on all the memories of his time as a firm reason to stay around a bit longer.


“My favourite memories of FCTG are from Christmas 2019, making the most of working over the holiday season by celebrating with my team. My first week back was the best first week I've had in a new job because it was great to see so many familiar faces,” Josh said. 


Josh’s new role has opened the door to a potential career that he had never before envisioned for himself and has since enrolled in multiple finance courses at university to further develop his skills.

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