My career: Sam’s story

At Carnival UK we’re a diverse bunch, we have a multitude of skills, knowledge, and experience between us. You told us that when thinking about your own development it helps to hear from others about how they’ve got to where they are today. We regularly share career stories from around the business to showcase development opportunities and provide inspiration. 

Having finished at the University of Bedfordshire, Sam Holland wasn’t sure what to do next. He had a Computing related qualification but was working full time as Hotel and Restaurant manager at Beefeater and Premier Inn at Luton Airport. He quickly realised he valued his evenings, weekends and bank holidays, so decided to put his studying to good use. Having relocated back to Southampton, when the chance to work for Carnival UK came along, it was too good an opportunity to not go for it. Sam joined Carnival UK in 2010 as HR Administrator and has since worked his way up to Technology Programmes Senior Manager.

“I started at Carnival UK in November 2010 as an HR Administrator and after a few years felt ready to apply for the more technical role of HR systems Analyst. In April 2013 I was successful in my application. While both these roles gave me great experience, I didn’t yet have a clear path of where I was heading. A year into the role of HR Systems Analyst, and having built experience of contributing to projects, I realised that project management was an area I was particularly interested in. In August 2014 I applied for a Project Management Office analyst role and was successful.

For the next three years I gained a good grasp of the Governance and Assurance elements of running ‘good’ projects and enjoyed dabbling with running smaller initiatives myself. In June 2017 I applied to be a Project Manager which is a role I absolutely loved. I really enjoyed seeing a teams hard work come together, a particular highlight for me was being involved in the IT infrastructure delivery of Iona.

In July 2022 I was promoted to Programme Manager which is where I am today. Not one to stand still, my ambition is to work my way up toward Director level and with the support of my current manager, I’m focusing on closing any skills gaps.  I have also found being a member of the Association for Project Management (APM) useful. As a member I can see what qualifications I could aim for next, what network events are coming up and any new resources. To complement the more technical side of my role I have also enrolled into the Open University and am studying one of their free courses on Leadership and Followership which will take about 18 weeks to complete.

I’ve had many great opportunities and experiences at Carnival UK, and I have two prominent career highlights. The first would be being promoted into my current Senior Manager role. The application process of multiple interviews and presentations was hard. I have always had Imposter Syndrome in varying degrees, so pushing through that to come out on top was a huge personal achievement.

My second highlight would be being asked to join Azura in the Caribbean for a week as part of a project implementation in one of my early HR roles. Representing our shore team to deliver the required change was a big responsibility and to do it in such an amazing environment was a memorable experience. 

My two top tips for opening yourself up to opportunity and making yourself more visible would be to network and get yourself a mentor. Seek out people who inspire you and be curious – ask lots of questions. Request to get involved in working groups to understand wider parts of your team or other departments, not only will you meet lots of people, but you’ll get a broader understanding of the business too.

Until earlier this year I was mentored by Angus Struthers, VP Marketing and Sales Cunard. I contacted him to ask if he’d take me on as a mentee and we met monthly for around a year before he left Carnival UK. He provided a safe and trusted space where we could both talk openly and I learnt a huge amount from him. If you’re interested in having a mentor, I recommend reaching out to someone who inspires you and seeing if they’d be happy to support. 9 times out of 10 I’m sure they would and if they can’t right now, they may be able to guide you to someone who can. 

Throughout my career at Carnival UK, I’ve been very proactive in taking part in learning and development opportunities. A highlight was being a part of the first cohort to go through the Leadership and Management Essentials training which were a fascinating and motivational set of sessions. A call out to Kyrstie Walters who delivers these in a very engaging and interactive way! If you’ve not completed your sessions yet make sure you look at upcoming sessions on The Cove and get booked on.

Sam’s recommended resources:

My Best Me: colleague development toolkit . This toolkit covers a wide range of topics from very specific ones such as inclusive recruitment  to broader softer skills such as handling difficult conversations to coping with change. I like refer back to this toolkit on The Cove to assess how I have handled or should handle a situation so that I am well equipped to drive an improved outcome for everyone involved.

Overcoming Imposter Syndrome (Power Hour) . I’ve always had Imposter Syndrome in varying degrees, so any tips on how to overcome it is always welcome.  Imposter Syndrome is more common that we think and is a great short session to book on to, you can do this via The Cove.

Assessing My Confidence (GoodPractice). I took this assessment a while ago and found it helpful. There’s a set of 15 questions aimed at giving a quick, high-level view of how confident you think you are. It’s a great introduction understanding yourself better, which leads onto more in-depth and insightful courses the further you run with it. Be brave, take that first step!

Thanks, Sam, for sharing your career story.

As we’ve heard here, if you want to develop it’s important you lead the way and let others know what this looks like to you. It’s important to be open to new opportunities and to identify skills gaps and address those. To find out more about resources and development opportunities to help you do this visit the performance and development pages on The Insider.