Five Minutes with Tom

As part of our Culture of Success Programme we’re going behind the scenes at Pocketworks HQ in our new Five Minutes with… features; celebrating our staff, what they do and what makes them unique.  

Five minutes with… Tom

I’m Tom, Mobile Strategy Specialist at Pocketworks. I’m responsible for sales and client strategy, so whenever anyone starts their journey with Pocketworks they come through to me and I help turn their ideas and plans into a mobile strategy .

The culture at Pocketworks is great, and something we prioritise highly. I can often be found helping other people in the team, organising some team building activities or keeping everyone on track – no two days are the same and although I have quite a senior role, its fun to be involved in the team aspects too. 

One of the first things we do when we join Pocketworks is choose a Star Wars avatar, as a huge Star Wars fan I loved this. I picked the droid BB-8 from the new films, I connect with him in many ways – I’m also slightly round and ginger, but mainly because I regularly get called on to help save the day …! 

My favourite app is Amazon. They have just totally nailed the fantastic customer experience you should get from using an app; it’s totally focused on getting you what you want as quickly and simply as possible. It’s the perfect representation of their business plan , which is what every great app should facilitate. 

In my spare time, I love to play and watch sport, mainly rugby and skiing, and I’m a bit of a not-so-secret nerd – I love a bit of gaming. I also really enjoy cooking and watching films; if I wasn’t doing what I do now I think I’d have been a chef or a filmmaker , although I’m pleased I get to now enjoy these things without the associated pressure! 

If I could create an app to do anything, I’d build something which remotely disables people’s phones in pubs, restaurants and the cinema ! It drives me crackers when I can see people glued to their phones and not talking to each other in these places, and don’t even get me started on phone lights in the cinema. They should be taken off you and put in a locker on the way in.

Being a film buff I watch loads of films but my favourite ever made is The Departed; Di Caprio, Damon, Nicholson and Scorsese, what’s not to like?!

If I could have any superpower, I’d love to have built-in lie detection . I reckon things could get done and sorted much quicker if we could just cut out all the BS. 

I’ve worked hard to achieve various goals over the years and could tell you about some career ones, but let’s be honest the personal ones are always more interesting! One of the funniest personal ‘achievements’, if you like, was my friends and I blagging our way into the VIP section of an event where Verne Troyer was doing a show. We ended up having a full night out with him and the cast of Dirty Sanchez, it was bonkers but one of those things we look back on and laugh that it happened! I’m also quite proud of being a published poet ; when I was at primary school I won a National poetry competition and had my poem published in a book. It was about a slug, if you ask me after a couple of beers I’ll recount it for you. 

If I were a biscuit I’d be a hobnob. Chunky, sweet and doesn’t fall apart under pressure .