Xn Leisure would like to welcome:
Name: Paul Manley
Team Joined: Professional Services
Position: Trainer
Welcome to Paul, who has joined the Professional Services Team in a brand new post of Internal Trainer. Paul will be based in our offices from Milton Park and will be a great support source for the Implementation Training Consultants who are all field based. Paul will be working closely with Jane Sanger Xn's training manager to develop new training deployment opportunities across the portfolio of Xn products.
Insight: Paul has spent most of his working career working to the Welsh Government in various forms. Most recently, he worked for an I.T. training company where he began his training career instructing Welsh Government staff on how to use their Document Management software. He moved to Oxfordshire and Xn when his girlfriend moved here for her work.
I am the kind of person who stops to read plaques on walls and cannot imagine life without Google and Wikipedia. I enjoy knowledge and learning.
I have previously compiled quick lunchtime quizzes for work colleagues to entertain and / or raise money for things like Children in Need, Comic Relief, and Starlight Children’s Foundation etc
I follow the progress of Southampton and Yeovil Town football clubs, and cheer on both England and Wales in rugby, being a neutral when they play one another.
Quick Fire Questions:
Q: What attracted you to your current position?
A: I was looking to move to the area to follow my partner who got a job in Oxford, but I was only going to come once I had a job to come to. Having found my way into software training 3 years ago I was very keen to continue along this path and when I came across the Xn job advert I felt it was a good match for my skills and experience, as well as being an opportunity to develop further as a trainer.
Q: What is the most enjoyable part of your job?
A: I have not started training with Xn yet, I am still learning the products. I can only speak from experience of my last role where I enjoyed building relationships with users and seeing them develop. It was great when they would come back to me with more and more challenging queries about what they could do with the software, or indeed coming up with their own suggestions and good working practices.
Q: And the least enjoyable?
A: To soon to say here at Xn. In my previous job it was always frustrating to have had a class arranged and have none of the attendees arrive, or to run a drop-in session that was not utilised.
Q: What’s the most irritating industry buzzword?
A: Having only just started in the Leisure Software industry I can’t say but my previous job supported a government office where I had worked for a number of years and pretty much anything with “re” pre-fixed to it caused concern, eg re-structure, re-design, re-think etc
Q: If you could give your 18-year old self one piece of advice what would it be?
A: Don’t go out in the snow when you have a cold and are feeling hot. It’s not clever.
Q: Describe yourself in three words.
A: Friendly, helpful and diplomatic
Q: What was your worst ever job?
A: Managing the Undergraduate and Post-Graduate Offices at a University Law School. I took a maternity cover promotion to do it but was less than a year into the job myself, ended up getting taken away from the things I enjoyed doing, like interacting with the students (customers) and being in a situation where I did not know what I did not know, very hard to ask for help when you don’t know there is a problem until after the fact! Lesson learned was knowing what it was in a job that I liked and trying to ensure I did not lose those things going forward.
Q: Dead or alive, who would you most like to meet?
A: In the current climate, Noah!
Q: What one question would you ask this person?
A: Room for a little one?
Q:If you were not doing this job, what would you be?
A: Still working as an IT trainer in Wales, but if I could change to anything, I think being a genealogist would be an interesting career.