Paving Your Own Career Path At Pilot

For Richard Bronson, the best part about being a region manager for Pilot Flying J is his ability to promote and advance his team members. It’s about the days where “you see the progress, you see people getting opportunities that worked hard for them and challenged themselves to get better—you see growth in the team, and at the end of the day, you see results.”

Since joining the Pilot family over a decade ago, Richard has seen story after story of team members being taken care of and recognized for their efforts. From a team member being helped financially to get back on his feet, to a deli manager and her family being provided food and lodging amidst challenging personal circumstances.

“During my first six months at Pilot, I encountered more experiences of people going out of their way to do things to help people than my 15 years working for other companies,” the region manager said.

Richard started off as a general manager in the Charleston area back in 2011, a position that unlocked new opportunities not only for his career, but for his family as well. He was asked to head to Texas and help with stores in the Permian Basin—something that opened his mind to the possibility of traveling to different places.

While in Texas, Richard was quickly placed in several leadership classes that helped him become a multi-unit manager of two of our busiest stores. He was then promoted to regional manager, with leadership helping develop and support him to get to where he wanted to be. One of the biggest ways he was able to do that was through a talent week for regional managers. “It was one of the best tools I’ve ever experienced at Pilot.”

Richard has taken that training and shared it with the general managers in his region to help them further their development as leaders. He focuses on providing support for his team when they need help, while also challenging them to develop an ownership-mentality and to lead with wisdom and humility.

This is exactly what gets him to work every day—developing his people and helping them become leaders just like he was supported in his own career growth. He loves how at Pilot, there’s no standard ‘waiting your turn’ for a new promotion if you’re a new team member. Rather, your career path is completely up to you.

“Some people are happy at some levels and some people want to go further in their careers,” Richard said. “We can find paths with whichever desires and directions you want to go.”

And no matter where you are in your career – from cashier to region manager – leadership is with you every step of the way.

“I don’t think you can beat it when you feel like your executive leadership team is just as bought in to the culture as we are at the store level.”

Are you looking for a new opportunity to pave your own career path? We’d love for you to join our team! Click here to explore some of our latest openings and work with the leading travel center network in North America.