If you’re a Whangarei local like Tania, you likely love the city’s proximity to beautiful beaches and its relaxed pace of living. As a Steel & Tube Senior Account Manager, Tania is known as the person who gets the job done. She has also worked to build relationships with local iwi which has grown our positive community impact. Here, Tania reflects on her career to date and looks ahead to what’s next for her.
Tell me about your career journey to date
My career journey has certainly been more of a winding road than a direct and defined course. I wouldn’t have it any other way as each and every job I have had has added to my toolbox of skills to support me in my current role.
From high school working at the local supermarket in Kaikohe as a Deli Assistant, to an ERP Project Coordinator, to a Truck Driver, and to Despatcher for one of the largest Civil Transport companies in Auckland. This was all prior to starting my family and becoming a Mum – which is the most important job title I will ever have.
When it was time for another change to support my husband with his career, we moved to Australia and I worked as a Tenders Coordinator for a major heavy machinery company.
Upon returning to New Zealand, I joined Steel & Tube on a fixed term maternity contract as a Customer Service Officer. When my contract wrapped up, I had a brief stint as a Trade Coordinator at a local Building and Supplies Merchant in Whangarei.
When another opportunity arose to return to Steel & Tube, I knew I couldn’t turn it down. Over the past almost five years of my current tenure with Steel & Tube, I’ve worked my way up Customer Service Officer to Account Manager to my most recent role of Senior Account Manager.
As my background is in logistics and transportation, I had a strong understanding of the operational and logistics side of a business’ operations. However, I had to work hard to develop my sales skills.
Looking back on my journey, I’d say that I’m fortunate that with diversity in my job history I have been able to develop a unique way in engaging with people from all walks of life, industries and cultural backgrounds. I’ve found this an invaluable skill when it comes to building relationships with those in the community.
What do you love about your role?
Backed by my experience as a Customer Service Officer, I felt that the transition to Account Manager would be easy. I was wrong! An Account Manager’s role is very different as you are building a relationship with the customer and defining the parameters of engagement. My first year in the role involved a lot of learnings, sanity checking my approach with colleagues and working hard to understand my customers.
When I moved into the role of Senior Account Manager, my role became more about strategic planning and analysing what course of action can be taken to deliver for our customers. That said, what I love most about my role is the opportunity, and more so requirement, to look outside of my own region and my own accounts to understand the bigger picture and what actions I can take to drive success for all Steel & Tube customers, not just my accounts.
I also enjoy being able to have cross-departmental conversations with Steel & Tubers who have a different set of skills from me. There is so much opportunity to gain bits and pieces of new information from each of these conversations which I can then dissect and apply to the teams I work with on a daily basis. These cross-business relationships also mean that I’m able to try new approaches with the reassurance that I have my own safety net I can fall back on as required. This gives me the confidence to push myself further and get outside of my comfort zone.
What was your greatest learning over the last year?
The importance of pausing. At the start of 2021, I tended to trust my gut. More recently, I’ve been focused on taking my time and looking outside of my immediate consideration set to understand the immediate and follow on effects from any decisions I’m making. So, taking a more holistic approach has been effective.
The challenges of 2021, brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, taught me some valuable lessons regarding the quality of the business we do. As an Account Manager, it was more important than ever that I kept my focus on our customers and doing what we can for them. Honesty, transparency and ultimately supporting them through all the changes in the market we are currently facing are critical.
It has also been important to realise that not everyone has the same throughout process as me. So, I’ve worked to understand how and why others arrive at their proposed solution. This has worked well as it’s often a combination of a couple of different ideas and approaches which make for a robust solution.
What do you like the most about living and working in Whangarei?
I love Whangarei as it’s close enough to home where my extended family is but it’s far enough away for personal independence and growth of my family unit. The balance between city and rural is also just right. I’ve been in Whangarei and Northland for almost my whole life so it’s great to see my kids and the kids of people I went to school with growing up together.
In terms of working in Whangarei, it’s an incredible place as it’s got such a strong sense of community. There are also so many opportunities to contribute to local iwi projects which is fantastic.
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