Lani Brown is an interesting mix of vibrant, friendly and ultra-diligent. As I sat down with her to gossip about her time at Capital Training over a hot chocolate, I was impressed with her diligence and confidence. I had given her a heads up about the questions I was going to ask and the topics I wanted to discuss throughout the interview, and she had gone away and prepared the necessary information for me. This meant that when we sat down to chat, it went smoothly and easily.

This diligence and focus on preparation are a theme in Lani’s life that she embraces and uses to her advantage. This diligence led her to complete a course in make-up artistry at Te Auaha and a qualification in Visual Communication Design at Massey. Upon completing those courses, Lani decided that it was time to embrace being an adult (not an easy thing to do).

Lani worked in the retail and hospitality industry part-time and hated it. She was over it and didn’t want to do it full-time. If this was what being an adult was all about, she didn’t want a bar of it. Some people are wired to enjoy retail and hospitality; Lani is not one of those people.

After some time, Lani was referred to Capital Training and found herself on an employment course. Lani wasn’t really sure about the course at first. She knew about creating a CV and getting ready for employment. To begin with, Lani wasn’t getting a lot out of the course. Lani made sure to let me know that it wasn’t because the course was bad, she just possessed a lot of the skills already.

This changed though when the course started to focus more on contact centre skills.  The fast pace and fluid nature of working the phone spoke to Lani. In her words she got “real into it”. She loved learning about the phones and developing the communication and confidence needed to excel in the contact centre industry. She loved being able to research and prepare for the upcoming day at course and made some like-minded friends who were also enjoying the contact centre training.

Towards the end of the course, Lani was beginning to feel confident that she was heading in the right direction to becoming an adult. She was looking at an industry that she was genuinely curious about and interested in, she was developing communication skills and was growing in confidence. She absorbed all of the job interview training that Capital Training could teach her and went off to start interviewing for jobs.

It is at this stage that I should say that Lani wanted me to thank our Employment Focused Team, Jaxs, Barb and Caroline for developing her skills and giving her the tools that she needed to get into employment and start adulting in society.

Lani walked in to her first interview with confidence and no short amount of swagger. Halfway through the interview, Lani knew that she had the job. She reckons that it was an awesome feeling, using the interview skills that she had picked up at Capital Training and seeing them work in the real world.

Lani didn’t stop there though, as she had another job interview lined up via Capital Training. Lani went in and got that job as well. This led to an interesting (and enviable) situation for Lani. She had to choose between two awesome jobs, two awesome organisations, two awesome contact centres to work in. This is not an easy pick, because the choice will dictate the next few years of her life. The choice between the two jobs dictates who she meets, who her new work buddies are, who her boss is and how she can progress her career.

After some considerable consideration, Lani went with the position at the ANZ contact centre and is excited with her choice and her future. Without her dedication and preparation, Lani would not have excelled at Capital Training like she did, she wouldn’t have been offered two jobs and her life would not be heading in the direction that she wants.

Lani is friendly, dedicated and awesome. We are certain that she is going to be fantastic in her new role and that she is going to have a great life and be an awesome adult.

We wish you all the best Lani, stay in touch!