Operations Manager, BBC Studios
Alex Rhodes reflects on how she has navigated her early career and how her time studying at the University of Liverpool Management School helped prepare her for life after graduation.
Why did you decide to study at the University of Liverpool Management School?
I chose to study Business Management because it had so much variety in the modules you could do, which really suited me as I had no idea which area of business I wanted to pursue.
When I then visited the Management School, I knew it was the right place. The campus is all in one area but it was nice to have the city centre so close.
What were some key lessons or skills you gained during your time studying?
Studying at Liverpool helped show me what areas of business I liked, and lecturers not only taught the material but showed me the potential careers I had no clue about before.
Some of my favourite modules were ones where we had slightly more practical assessments, where we were able to create business ideas or come up with solutions for real life problems. I preferred this to theory assessments, because it meant I could learn the theory but apply it to real situations.
One great event was when we got to have stall for our newly created business and showcase the work we’d done. The course had so many modules like this that I could select, which meant I could find the modules that suited my learning style, prepping me for the real world.
You undertook a year in industry at Warner Bros, can you share some highlights or key experiences from your time working there?
I’d say my placement year was a massive highlight for my time at Liverpool, it was definitely intense applying and securing one. The modules the university provided to support this did help as it gave you a realistic view of the level of work to secure a placement.
One of the best things I got told while in ULMS was that you are interviewing the company too, you are seeing if it fits you as well as the interviewers assessing you. This really took off the pressure and allowed me to be myself and calm the nerves of interviews.
My placement role was in corporate social responsibility which allowed me to be connected to so many departments including HR, consumer products, events, publicity and much more. I was one of around 60 interns, and maybe 15 apprentices across the whole company, which meant you had connections and insights in the business in every team, but also provided the social side of a placement.
The best part of my placement was my team, and particularly my manager who was really supportive, gave me amazing opportunities to take on responsibility, whilst also treating me to some unique experiences like industry events or film premieres. She gave great advice, saying that it doesn’t matter if you don’t know what you want to do, all you need to do is work hard, gain experience and connections, and it will always lead to the next opportunity, and nowadays people will have more than one career opportunity anyway.
After graduation, you gained experience working for a wide range of companies including Just Eat, the NHS, and Tesla. How did these experiences contribute to your career growth?
Every job I have had since graduating has been a step to the next which has led me to the career I want to be in. I had been working in the NHS providing admin support on and off whilst at university, those connections secured my first role within HR Projects. This gave me some experience in recruitment, which is what secured my recruitment role at Tesla.
Tesla showed me how much I enjoyed working in a fast-paced environment. I was a bit hesitant when I got offered the job at Just Eat due to only being at Tesla for a short time, but it was one of the best steps I took as I do believe it led me to where I am now.
Just Eat, whilst initially starting in recruitment, gave me opportunity to secure a secondment in the recruitment information systems team. This focused more on the behind the scenes work of the recruiter’s role by building processes and systems. This secondment was what showed me my career interest and led me to my current job and future career in operational work.
I started my career in a very different area to where I am now and I am grateful for each experience. I would not have secured the next role without the one before it and am still using skills I learned from each role.
You now work as an Operations Manager in the Digital Team at BBC Studios. Can you walk us through a typical day in your role?
Honestly there is no day to day, and that’s one reason I love it. I work in a growing, fast paced digital team and recently helped with the formation of our operations unit.
I focus on process improvements – building better more efficient processes for our more creative team members to thrive in, manage core operational functions including people processes, tech support and finance, while also managing technology infrastructures and ensuring our various teams have the best systems and technology in place to enhance their roles.
I work on large projects, also providing day to day support to my team and others around the business. I love the freedom I get in my role to come up with new initiatives to improve the entire digital functions and processes within a creative industry.
BBC Studios as a whole is also a great place to work, they have so many internal opportunities to develop with supportive leaders and managers, who have influenced me to lead in an inclusive, people first way which allows individuals to shine.
What are your future career aspirations?
Currently I would like to continue on my path within operations, with the aim to grow within my current team and grow our digital operations unit.
If and when I decide to move on from BBC Studios, I have found that a creative industry is where I thrive, so I would like to stick with the same industry but take on a new operational function. The great thing about operations is that it is diverse career, with digital being one aspect of it. This means I can move into a new area of operations for my next steps.
For now, I am really excited about being part of the creation of a new function, process and infrastructure which wasn’t there before. Along with my manager, we have already started growing our operations unit, and I aim to grow this more and would love to grow these functions across more BBC Studios teams.