My name is Marietta, on Monday 1st of November 1999, I arrived in London, very shy, overwhelmed but thoroughly excited to walk through Harrods Staff Entrance. I will never forget how I felt at the time.  

A short back story: I always dreamed of living in London. I studied in Leeds and occasionally would hop on a National Express and visit the city of my dreams. Each time visiting Harrods of course! In September 1999, after a devastating earthquake in Athens, I packed a small suitcase and hopped on the plane to London on a one-way ticket. I had my best friend living here for five years so I knew I would be supported.  

The dream was to work at any media company that would hire me, I studied Journalism and Television Culture. However, after not hearing from any of them, I turned to my own experience in retail and sent a couple of CVs to various stores. On the 7th of October, with my CV in my hand and no interview scheduled, I strolled down Brompton Place, where the recruitment offices of Harrods were situated at the time. I handed over my CV to the receptionist and 5 minutes later she asked me to go and see someone called, Patrick in a little interviewing room. He took a look at my CV asked me a couple of questions, made a phone call to Anthony, the Manager of an area called ‘Egyptian Hall’ and just like that, I had a job in London! I was so happy that I got on the wrong train back home. When my friend came to pick me up, we were both jumping with joy.
 
Back to the 1st of November. I had my induction, I loved every minute; that I spent the whole evening reading about Harrods history and felt so lucky that I was going to work at such an amazing place!
 
It was the 150th anniversary of Harrods and everything about Christmas was truly magical. I started as a Christmas Temp for our Egyptian Hall and when I decided to become permanent I moved to Harrods World on the fourth floor. After four years in Harrods World, I moved to the Financial Services in 2004 which later changed to our rewards department. 
 
And here I am now working for our Customer Service department! The development of the department has made me learn so much about myself and I keep learning every day, even after 20 years.
 
I have met some incredible people, I have made friends for life and had so much support by some amazing managers, and although times can get tough I have enjoyed every single minute! 
 
I love all my team dearly, they are my family, I am very lucky and so grateful for them. 
 
Here’s to another twenty years.