Career Heroes - Rebecca McKeefry

Tell us more about you

Outside of work I enjoy spending my free time with family and friends. I can often be found in a coffee shop. I also enjoy watching sports and going to the gym. I like exploring new areas in Ireland, including forest walks, mountains, and beaches.

What kind of work do you do?

On a daily basis, I look after the Quality Team on site and make sure we have enough people to cover the production floor. We’re there to assist during processing and ensure safe and legal food is produced. I do get variety in my job, spending half my day in the factory environment and the other half in an office.

My main role is ensuring the site is fully compliant with food safety standards and meeting customer quality expectations. I make sure people follow procedures and uphold our safety standards at all times. If an issue does arise, I work alongside production to fully manage and control the situation, keeping the product safe.

I aid in the investigations of complaints, any micro or contamination incidents on site, and ensure effective corrective actions are put in place to prevent the issue from happening again. We’re subjected to internal and external audits (inspections), and I work with all teams to make sure we’re “audit ready” all the time.

How did you become a Assistant Manager ?

I started completing AS Levels in St. Patrick’s, Maghera. We had a talk from CAFRE college about different degree courses. It was in this talk that inspired me and I got my eyes opened to the opportunities in the food industry.

My A Level subjects didn’t suit the course I wanted to apply for, so I approached the woman giving the talk for advice. I left school and completed a National Diploma in Food Technology and then a degree at Loughry College, Cookstown. CAFRE taught us about all sectors of the food industry, but for me, I always wanted to work in the meat industry.

I started with Cranswick on their graduate programme. Initially I was based in Hull, England working with fresh pork. I also worked in Suffolk (fresh chicken), and their Ballymena site (fresh pork).

I helped secure contracts with Marks & Spencer and Tesco for the Suffolk site. I took on my first management role in my second year of the graduate programme with two direct reports, this was focused on the launching of new product.

If you could do-over, What would you do differently?

If I'd known about the opportunities in the food industry earlier, I wouldn’t have started doing A Levels and gone straight to Loughry College after doing my GCSEs.

I would have joined the industry sooner, as this is where the real learning starts, and I could have completed my degree part time.