Interpath Services is a purpose-led business with highly trained specialists and experts to offer the best service to our customers. One of the youngest experts on the team is none other than Callum Symons, who currently works as a Sales Support Officer, while he completes a Masters of Applied Finance at the University of New South Wales.
Beginning his career with Interpath in January of 2023, Callum took some time to tell us about his background in finance, how he identifies trending customer patterns to optimise business opportunity, and his overall career journey so far - as well as what he loves about the data side of the life science industry.
What's your career background and how did you end up at Interpath Services?
"While I'm still quite young in my working career, I began as an assistant in accounts for a financial services company while at university, and at the same time working as a remote booking officer for an after-hours home doctor company.
During that time, I was completing a Bachelor of Business at RMIT University, minoring in Economics and Finance. After completing my bachelor's degree, I arrived at Interpath as a Bunzl Graduate.
Due to my location to the Interpath office compared to the Bunzl Head office, I was assigned to Interpath for my first rotation in the program in Customer Service - and I have never looked back! I quickly moved into a full-time position 6 months into the 1-year graduate program."
Tell us about your role with Interpath.
"As a Sales Support Officer, I assist the sales team with any requests for data analytics and reporting as well as tasks such as processing and looking after the sample for customer process.
As my time at Interpath lengthens, I have had increased involvement with several processes that are vital to the business such as business and territory budgets as well as overseeing and running price changes, which can be a lengthy and detail-focused task.
My area of expertise is my ability to identify trending customer patterns that are emerging within the business, which then helps to identify potential gaps and opportunities where we can optimise sales opportunities, as well as understand more of the variety of products that can be sold to targeted customer sectors."
What do you enjoy most about your role?
"There is a lot that I like about my role, so it's very hard to narrow it down! I think what I like most about my role mainly comes down to how I can apply my skillset.
I'm not only able to help the sales team with reporting on insights and sales, I'm also able to support other teams such as Customer Service, Category and Operations. By analysing their data, I can help improve their workflow and knowledge, which in turn improves the business.
This also allows me to better understand what each departments biggest or most annoying problems are, which then gives us the information to make better decisions by understanding the pain points everyone is facing and try to improve cohesion. And that means we can work together to create a better team."
When you started with Interpath what most surprised you?
"When I started with Interpath, I was still very green about the full-time workforce. I felt that I had so much to learn, not only in my role and what I was being asked to do, but also about how a business like this works. I learned quite fast how important it is that all the teams are on the same page and working together to achieve the business's goals year on year.
I think what surprised me most is how willing everyone was to take the necessary time to help me with anything I needed, and also to help me understand exactly how what they do is important for the business. I know now it was because they understood that in the long-run, I would benefit them greatly - and it paid off.
I've also had the opportunity to meet great role models that I admire, and from them I've learned countless lessons that I will carry with me for the rest of the working career."
What are your main priorities for 2025?
"My main priorities for 2025 are to keep developing my knowledge of the needs of the sales team so that I am able to effectively use my time to help so that they can optimise their results.
I want to keep developing my leadership qualities that have been assisted by my participation in Bunzl's Ignite Leadership Program, so that I'm able to hold a leadership position in the business one day.
Like the current trajectory that I have been on over the last couple of years, I will continue to look for opportunities to become more involved in whole business processes so that I am able to further my knowledge in different facets of the business to become more useful."
What’s the biggest challenge facing the industry right now?
"I think the biggest challenge facing the industry, which is also a common for many industries across the globe, is the ability to offer competitive and attractive prices to customers, while also maintaining respectable margins for the business.
As a business, car for our customers has always been a high priority and I believe that the entire team endeavour's to deliver high quality service in which they can trust every customer is well looked after and each order is delivered in a more than adequate time frame with no issues on the delivery.
With businesses globally now looking to cut costs, I hope our customer's understand that they will be better off seeking a partner like us, who can offer a full service model with support, rather than just looking at the lowest prices to save money."
What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned over the past 12-18 months?
"The biggest lesson that I have learned over the last 12-18 months is that saying yes to everything is a great way to learn quickly, especially in my early stages of being in the workforce. It's also a great way to learn a large variety of information that assists me in becoming even more beneficial to the business.
I have started to understand that no-one will ask me to do a task that they don’t think I'm capable of doing, and knowing that they have that belief in me (and that I can complete that task) is a great confidence boost to take on any new challenges. Especially if it's something that I haven’t done before, you’ll never know you go until you try!
At Interpath Services, we are committed to fostering young talent and driving success through expert analysis and high-quality service. To learn more about how we can optimize your business needs, contact us directly.