Could you first introduce yourself to the reader?
My name is Mat, I’m 27 years old, and I’m from Poland. I moved to London in 2017 – I’ve been here before, for nearly a year (around 2015 I think) and back then I’ve already fallen in love with the city. I’m a big fan of music, but also art and culture, and you can’t imagine a better city to live surrounded by arts, than London. People here are so inspiring and if I have to be honest – thinking outside the box is a daily basis for them. What I also love about London is how many different cultures and people from all over the world you can meet here. People here are open minded and I can learn a lot, not only at work or college, but also directly from people I meet around the city on various events.
What does your job involve? Give us the typical outline of a day?
My position is called Client Account Manager. I’m based in a Music Team and handle a variety of accounts across all music genres for our clients and system venues. I am trying to provide proactive customer and business focused Client Account Management solutions across our client base, whilst promoting the highest standards of customer service. There are a lot of responsibilities here, starting with satisfying, retaining and developing current and future client relationships, through to monitoring and controlling ticket inventory, and finishing with the most exciting one – implementing new business systems and solutions.
I also have to plan, manage and attend box offices, both venue or ‘green field’ site based. A few years ago, summer for me was all about festivals. Now it’s kind of still all about festivals, but instead of attending I’m assisting or managing box offices there. Access control management is quite an important part of our role.
Before I joined Ticketmaster I didn’t know how many different activities and responsibilities are hidden behind the word “ticketing”.
What’s great about your job?
I think the most exciting thing is meeting new people. I’ve met many interesting people working in the music industry, not only clients, but also customers. Since I was a kid, I always wanted to work in the music industry. I was lucky enough that in my short career path I’ve already managed to be involved in Festival Production, Music Events, TV Production and Realisation and now – ticketing. I think it’s really important to have experience in every possible aspect of the industry, as who knows – maybe one day I will be able to run my own music festival. Watch this space!
What are the bits you don’t like or find challenging?
Sometimes, especially during summer time, it gets really busy. Before I got involved in ticketing and access control, I didn’t really know how much is going on in the background – the backend that attendees can’t see. Summer time is when the “think on your feet” part of your job specification is getting tested in practice in ticketing. I’m not going to lie – as much as I find it challenging – I love it. I love working on the move, I love being busy and I love to see the effects of my hard work. It was a normal thing for me that from May till the end of August I was at home for maybe one weekend – all other weekends I’d have spent on festival sites around the UK. During summer you can’t really feel how tired you are, you are just busy with work, but then, when the last bank holidays are gone, you can feel it. It’s time to take care of yourself and rest. So, as I said, it’s not something I don’t like, as I’m actually enjoying it – it’s just challenging so it’s important to try and find balance between work and life.
What has been a specific highlight of your career to date?
I think I could say that all the work we did with our team when we introduced Mobile Ticketing in Ticketmaster to our UK market was definitely a highlight. That was last year, November, when Four Tet did an O2 Academy Brixton 4-nights residency. As O2 Academy Brixton is one of my clients, I was coordinating the project between different teams inbound but also was making sure that venue is happy and up to date with everything. I also had to remember about customers, but as I was one for years I think I knew what they expected from us. It was fun and I think it was a good test for myself and my skill set. I enjoyed it a lot as I’m a bit of a geek myself, so anything digital related is always an interesting experience. I was stressed a bit at the beginning but everything went perfectly fine and smooth.
And what is a specific challenge you managed to overcome? What did you learn from it?
It’s not really work related, but I think a lot of people thought that I moved to the UK in quite a difficult time. My parents weren’t happy at all about me going to the UK during all this Brexit stuff, and I was a little bit scared about the language barrier. “Am I going to face any kind of hate here?” – I was asking myself. Fortunately, both in Ticketmaster and in my private life I’ve met some amazing people who don’t really care where you are from, but who you are. That’s also a huge positive part of my city romance with London.
Why did you decide to do an apprenticeship?
Haha, that’s a funny story! To be honest – I was looking for a job, and when I saw the apprenticeship offer, I thought ‘this might be interesting’ (I was not wrong!). So I wasn’t actually looking for an apprenticeship, just for a job. It would be the first time in the UK that apart from just working somewhere, I would also get some education. I’ve just finished my Master’s in Poland so college and apprenticeship was something that I thought I could manage. Looks like I was right…
How did you find out about the opportunity?
I always wanted to try and work for a big music company and see how it is with the giants. Apart from TV Production I was mostly involved in the independent music business, so I wanted to see how different things are. Live Nation is operating in Poland and they are doing very big events there, so I decided to check the LNE jobs website. UK Music business is much bigger in the UK than in Poland, so there were a lot of offers on the website, but I thought an apprenticeship will be a good start to get slowly into industry.
How did it feel to be nominated for apprentice of the year? How did you find out you’d made the list?
It was a nice feeling – to know that somebody appreciates your work. I didn’t know until I got the e-mail from CCSkills – I had my line manager next to my desk saying “Congratulations Mat'' and I was quite confused as I haven’t opened the e-mail yet!
What do you hope to do next?
I’m not trying to plan my life too much. If you have hopes for something, there is always a possibility you might feel disappointed at some point. Without planning – life can only get you by surprise, and I think I like surprises.
Why should people consider apprenticeships?
I think it’s a great start to any career path. You’re being thrown in the middle of the industry, with a lot of opportunities to meet new people with a lot of experience. Networking is very important part of any business now. And also it’s a good check for yourself if that’s something you actually want to do and you will be enjoying doing that.
You’ve been granted the ability to send a message to 16-year-old you. What do you say?
Saturday 25th December 2010 lottery results: 13,15, 22, 25, 33, 34, 17.
Do you have any advice for young people interested in doing your kind of job?
I think there is a lot of stuff everyone could say, but I think the most important is: know your value.
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