From dreams of being an actor to landing a starring role as Flight Centre’s new Foundation Leader, perhaps it’s now that Suzi Borgelt has finally found her big break.
Embarking on the Journey
Suzi’s love for travel started early. Growing up in a military family took her to live in Malaysia for the early part of her childhood, sparking a lifelong love of Asian Food, History and Culture.
With a Playwright and Talent Manager Mother, Suzi was sure she would end up on the big screen, so this career path eventually took her to Japan where she spent her early 20’s.
So, after moving back to Australia and working in a “really crummy job,” and still pursuing an acting career, Suzi’s career ambitions changed literally overnight. It was after dinner at a friend’s place that she first learned about Flight Centre and what would be the start of her new dream career.
“I went to my friend’s place, and she had all these bottles stacked up, like a tower of wine against the wall," Suzi said.
“I commented on it, and she said they were all buzz night prizes, and of course at the time I had no idea what a “buzz night” was.
“She started telling me about Flight Centre and I was really interested, so she referred me, and I got an interview!
“It was funny, back then you had to take a geography test when you went for your interview, and one of the questions was ‘what’s the capital of Libya?’, which is Tripoli.
“She told me, no normal person knows the capitol of Libya, so, if you get that right you will get through,” she said.
Before she knew it, Suzi was working in Flight Centre at Ashgrove and would stay there for three years before leaving and working for bigger corporate companies doing some high-end leisure and corporate stuff, before returning to Flight Centre in 2006 working in the contact centre.
“The rest of my career was in the contact centre as Area Manager for the 24/7 sales teams, the website customer support teams, customer relations, risk management, and the social media part of that too,” she said.
“This was up until 2018, we then offshored the website customer support department, and some other changes were happening at the time, so I took the opportunity to rest and moved out to the country!”
“For the last few years, I’ve been doing some really random, crazy jobs, but it was the last few years that really had an impact on me. I went into a new industry and started at the beginning, as a novice. I have always been passionate about the employee experience, but starting again, at the beginning, feeling like a number and not having the voice I so dearly needed almost broke me.
I was determined to hold onto that experience and turn it into something worthy, dedicate my career to improving this experience for others.
“I always knew I’d come back to Flight Centre; it was just really a matter of when.”
Booking a return ticket
In March this year, FCTG posted a job listing advertising a new role – Flight Centre Foundation Leader.
“This opportunity came up and I thought, well this is what I’ve been waiting for!” she said.
A perfect role, as Suzi was heavily involved with the Foundation during her time at Flight Centre, perhaps foreshadowing what would be her “in” back to the company.
When asked about her favourite memory of the Foundation, Suzi shared an anecdote that truly reflects Flight Centre’s core value of irreverence.
“My old area had between 80-90% workplace giving – we were very, very involved which was due to our champion at the time, Krista,” she said.
“We did the ALS ice bucket challenge when that was a big thing, and me and the other area leader in the contact centre, Aaron and Krista being our champion were the victims.
“We’re all sitting there with our Foundation T-shirts and blindfolds on, and there’s this great photo where Krista had organised for much, much bigger buckets with more water and more ice than we were expecting to come out.
“It was hilarious – we have some great stories.”
A Flightie for Life
It’s no secret that Flight Centre and Suzi share somewhat of a magnetic force, with Suzi now having left and returned to the company twice.
When asked whys she keeps coming back, Suzi said there was always something different about Flight Centre.
“I was always a Flightie for life, like from the very beginning,” she said.
“When Joell Ogilvie told me at my initial novice induction night back then in 2002 that I could run the company one day, I believed her!
“I’ve worked in a lot of jobs, but at Flight Centre you have a voice, and people want to hear it – you can give feedback, you can be real, and you can make a difference.
“Besides all the obvious stuff that we love about the company and the culture, being able to have a voice is really important to me.”
Suzi agreed that much of this translates into the Foundation, where she encourages Flighties to think about how they can use their voice in a different way.
“What they get out of it (involvement in the Foundation), is something fundamental that we need as human beings, and that’s to be part of something bigger than yourself,” she said.
“I love the idea that I can help people see the difference that they’re making and see that what they do has a purpose”.
“I think we often talk about volunteering your time, and not everybody’s got the time, but sometimes you can be better off making money and being able to donate a little bit of that money to the Foundation or to whatever cause you’re passionate about.”
And on what she’s looking forward to achieving in her new role:
“I’m really looking forward to getting past the initial setting up stage, I want to make it easier for our people to contribute in a way that is meaningful to them and make a difference, I know they want to, but they just don’t have time right now.
“I’m looking forward to getting Flight Centre Foundation back to where it was, back to where it used to be.”
