Rebecca Sides is the General Manager at Inchcape Mercedes Benz. Rebecca will be sharing valuable career advice with us – here is her first piece, a bit about her job and how she got there in the first place!
So here I am, eleven years into the most inspiring journey, with the world’s most recognisable brand, Inchcape Mercedes Benz. When I finished University at the age of 21, a career in the motor industry wasn’t on my horizons.
From the age of eleven I had always worked alongside my studies including various jobs such as newspaper delivery, bar work, chicken packer, call centre handler, shoe sales person, balloon artiste, Juice and Smoothie Bar owner and various PR and promotions roles. When I finished University I accepted a role with Aldi on their Graduate scheme but something wasn’t fitting. I had a passion for sales and the entrepreneurial spirit within me wanted to pursue my second passion, that of cars.
My father and grandfather had both driven a Mercedes Benz; both classic E Class Saloons. I vividly remember sitting on the cloth seats as a child and thinking how on earth would I ever learn to drive and manoeuvre that huge steering wheel. For this reason, the Mercedes brand always featured heavily in my life, so the dream was to work for the three pointed star.
It was a Thursday morning, I pulled up to the Mercedes dealership in Liverpool in my black pinstripe trouser suit and walked in to reception, “Hi, is the sales manager available please?” The receptionist quickly replied that he was busy, but never one to be discouraged I said I would wait. It must have been twenty cups of tea and six or seven hours later, but eventually I was met with a man’s voice, “Persistent aren’t you?”.
The rest as they say is history. I walked into the dealership that day with no interview, no knowledge of a vacancy even, but I was determined that I would leave having been given a chance.
Take a look at this video below of Rebecca at CDX!
I started as a Sales Executive a week or so later and my first demo was a manual gold A Class with black cloth interior. The first car I sold I remember to this day; a black C Class Coupe Kompressor, and since then I have sold and helped to sell, literally thousands of cars.
From my first day back in February 2008 as a trainee sales person, I have worked up to the position of General Manager at one of the biggest Mercedes sites in the UK, having done various roles including Sales Executive, Business Development Manager and Fleet Manager. I have the same determination now as I did back then and that is to continue to grow my career from strength to strength and prove to like minded individuals that anything is possible through hard work.
See Rebecca in action at work here:
I read once, that you have to be willing to do the things others won’t in order to have the things others can’t. This statement is so true. The biggest thing I have learned through the years is that you have to be committed to your commitment. Activity without purpose is a drain and goals are important but so is action. You have to be willing to show up every single day and never give up to get the things you desire.
I hope that through this amazing opportunity I can encourage others to take the first step to the future career they want in the automotive sector and not the one where they merely exist.
