From Sales Representative to Data Delivery Consultant at Schwarz IT Bulgaria – the journey of Borislav Filipov.

Work abroad? Only if they call me from NASA.

Borislav Philipov shares about his journey to Schwarz IT Bulgaria and more

There is a certain type of people who are are aware of what they want their professional life to look like – the types who have developed a sharp concept for how they want to develop their career and are consciously aware of what they expect from their employer and their company. The types who consistently meet their professional aspirations and feel proud of their work. This is the story of our colleague – Borislav Philipov, a Data Delivery Consultant in Schwarz IT Bulgaria. However, Borislav's career path did not seem quite so orderly and clear 7 to 8 years ago.

The long road to an IT career and the lessons learned along the way

Borislav graduated from high school with a technical profile background and soon after got a job as sales representative, where he learned the skill of prioritization and the importance of choosing his own battles.
In 2016, he accepted a friend’s offer and traveled to England, starting work at a carwash and eventually changed jobs to work for the British bookmaker William Hill, although after some reflection and as the months abroad slowly passed by, he finally came to the realization that he didn’t travel 3500km away from friends and family just to waste his time.
 
The main focus of work was to to make the displayed goods suitable for sale, albeit but there were some other interesting tasks. Work at the information desk, cashiers and acceptance of goods was very different from that at other departments, nevertheless all departments had their own specifics. Common to all departments was need for communicating with a vast amount of different people and personalities and the need for understanding not only for the unit you are working in, but the system as a whole. There is a certain amount of carry-over between different organizational units, which makes it necessary to have expertise in all areas.

Did you learn something? If so what?

I’d share, but it’s a trade secret. I’m just kidding, of course. It was interesting to see the logistics behind the whole process. I was able to note quite a few solutions that definitely take the pressure off of the dynamic work process. I saw the electronic price tags, something I never noticed as a supermarket chain customer, but they completely eliminate the need to print price tags and can be updated by scanning a product’s barcode.
I actually had no idea how the receiving and storage of goods are. The food products on display are ordered daily and there not large quantities of it stored. It was also interesting that most of the displays are on wheels and can be moved around to maintain the overall plentiful appearance of the store, which be much more difficult with a stationary setup, assuming the logistics and guidelines are in place.

What are your key takeaways from the time spent? How would they help you in your work?

The three-day internship was an eye-opening experience that gave me a different perspective on how I could facilitate the workload of my colleagues, even if only in the position of an end user. After the visit, I am now more likely to take note of what my colleagues are striving for and all of the misadventures they are actively tracing. I now strive to help them out, within the rational for a client of-course, be it with information, slight rearrangement of products or just taking products off of the shelves in a way which would make it easy for my colleagues to trace without having to put in extra effort. Overall, the visit has made me a more conscious client of chain, so I appreciate the importance of my colleagues' work and strive to be positive and respectful every time I visit a store in the chain.