VanillaPlus: What was your first job?
Neil Tomlinson: My first job was a Saturday job as a sales assistant in a Men’s clothing “boutique”.
My first full time job was a Graduate Trainee with Plessey, installing and commissioning Telephone exchanges. Step by step, Cross bar and 1st generation electronic exchange technologies.
VP: What led you into a career in telecoms?
NT: As a potential graduate (1976), I was interested in two roles from the “Industry milk round” one with Plessey based in Newcastle as above and the second working on Nimrod the early warning aircraft based in Manchester. I was offered both positions and chose Plessey as this involved a lot of travel. A further advantage was that I didn’t have to stay at home which was the case with the Manchester Job. The rest is history
VP: Without naming and shaming, tell us about your worst ever boss.
NT: I have been lucky in my career that all my bosses have been excellent and supported my development. They have all had particular traits that needed to be understood and managed, however one memory still haunts me. We often had internal exec meetings by Video Conference and my objective was to be at the office where the “Boss” was to be. He had a habit of swinging his arm when frustrated and ready to explode; by being local you could see this and “shut up” as soon as possible.
VP: What has been your worst business travel experience?
NT: As you can possibly realise after 30 years of global travel I have had some interesting experiences. Some probably not printable! However one comes to mind – In the mid-eighties I was located in China and there were many horror stories. CAAC the airline was called “China Airways Always Cancels” had very old aircraft but was preferable to Hard Seat and machete wielding passengers on the railways. Leaving Bejing, on an old 747, to travel down to Hong Kong and before we had left the ground a number of the ceiling panels fell down into the aisles which of course leads you to check other things, seat belt wasn’t connected and no life jacket below the seat. Landing at Hong Kong one would have thought the pilot was running out of fuel as rather than travel all the way down the runway he took a sharp left throwing all the passengers about. One aircraft I was glad to get off – relatively unscathed.
VP: What has been the proudest moment in your career?
NT: I have a number of highlights but the proudest moment in my career was closing major deal with Deutsche Telekom and at the same time being nominated and awarded the president’s award for personal commitment beyond the call of duty – I made multiple very uncomfortable transatlantic flights with my arm in a cast to deliver the deal.
VP: Where do you see yourself in five years?
NT: Retired! and rebuilding my model railway which has not had the attention it deserves in recent years.
