Sentis Zile

Current Role: Warehouse Operative

Location: Goole Distribution Centre

Joined Tesco: August 2008

Read Sentis's story

For seven years I was a police officer in my home country of Latvia, but in 2004 I was shot in the leg during a shop robbery. Whilst on sick leave for six months my friend said we should move to the UK in search of a better life, as many other people from my country were doing at the time.

I’m fully recovered now and work as a forklift and powered pallet truck driver. It’s great here: I never feel tired, my colleagues and managers are really friendly, I like the good pay and you can apply to learn a lot of new skills. When I first started I was a picker, I’m now forklift and powered pallet truck qualified and hope to become a picker trainer.

“Here in the warehouse there are a lot of different nationalities, I’ve even learnt to speak Polish!”

Outside of work I play in a basketball team called Goole Warriors – we’ve won titles in three of the last five years! Our squad is made up of 12 players, nine of us are Tesco colleagues from Goole Distribution Centre who all come from Latvia and Lithuania. We’re all friends outside of work, and we spend time together with our families too, so there’s a good team spirit.

“We’re very proud to play with the Tesco logo on our shirts.”

Tesco has sponsored our team for the past three years which has helped to pay for training, kit and match fees; this is great as it can be expensive to belong to a club. I go to training and matches three times and the gym four times a week. Tesco are great at helping to manage my hours around this.

The other benefits of working here are seriously good. The Colleague Clubcard really helps, and I have shares as well – they are like invisible savings! I put away £50 each month, and you can get a much better return than putting savings in the bank.

Tesco can be a really good career for you, as it has been for me.