Friday, October 23, 2015

What's Your Day Job? Meet Lindsey!


I love learning about people, what they do for a living and what makes them tick. It's so nice hearing about different professions and how sometimes they maybe aren't as fun as you'd think or surprisingly go the other way.

In this week's 'What's Your Day Job?' we meet the lovely Lindsey, a West Midlands pub manager, mother and blogger.



Name: Lindsey Kettle

Age: 38

A few facts about you: I live in the West Midlands in the UK with my 2 children, aged 4 and 7, and my lovely husband and our cat. I don't have much free time, but love to go horse riding when I can! I have been blogging for 18 months.

What's your job? I am the Manager of a pub in the Students Union at the University of Warwick.

How long have you been doing it? I have worked for the SU for 10 years and managed the pub since it opened in 2009.


What do you like best about it? The thing that makes this job special to me is the people that I work with. Sometimes it can be hard work and occasionally long hours, but we all support each other and try and help each other out when we can. I also like the flexibility to set my own rotas (to a certain extent anyway) and, for a job in catering, to only have to work an average of 36 1/2 hours per week is pretty much unheard of.

What is the worst thing about it? The peaks and troughs of the business can be pretty draining. During University vacation periods, it is really quiet (although we do get some conference guests), then at the end of September everything goes mega crazy as all the Students return. Also, for me personally, the late nights are really tough when my kids get me up at 7am!

Would you recommend it? Yes and no. The hours are great, but the late nights can be tough. The busy times can also be very draining and take away from family time, but that only really happens at certain times of the year.

Any funny stories? I am sure there are plenty but not one springs to mind right now! Having said that some of my staff make me howl at times - like the time a new member of staff couldn't find the staffroom for 3 weeks...

What's your dream job? I never really had a clue what I wanted to "be when I grew up" and I kind of drifted into the catering trade. But now that I have kids, I think I would like to work with them - perhaps in a school setting. Or alternatively, I would love to work with animals! Or, if someone were to pay me to travel or sit at home, that would be okay as well!

Would you carry on if you won the lottery? If I won the lottery I think I would use some of the money to invest in retraining. But I might stay on occasionally as I would miss the people!



Thank you so much for taking part Lindsey, I can imagine how manic it must be at this time of year seeing all the freshers and students back in the city for the new term! I love that someone couldn't find the staff room for three weeks, hilarious! You can find Lindsey on Twitter and over at her brilliant blog - 101 Things To Do With Kids. Such a great site if you haven't visited!

If you'd like to take part and share your job with us, whatever it is! Please comment below or email me.

Thanks for reading,

Wafflemama