2007 Graduate Apprentice Blog

Two placements down means only one thing, its time to start the next challenge that my year will throw at me!  Today was day one of my sixteen weeks with Stefan Lewandowski, who is a ‘Creative Freelance’… which I am told means he is the ‘Ideas Guy’.  Stef is a key figure within Birmingham’s creative community, and judging by the amount of work going on, I am sure that his influence will only increase.  I will be working on a number of projects while with Stef, the main of which is a hush-hush for now, but trust me, once its ready, it will be all you hear about.

Its also going to be a little bit of a different placement in that I am going to be working from Stef’s home, and sometimes remotely.  I do feel bad, as ultimately I am invading someone’s personal space, and its the space where a baby lives, which is hectic enough without a new face to add to the mix.  However, I met Imogen this morning for the first time, and hopefully after seeing me a few more times she will allow me to spend a little time in her house.

In terms of work, my first day was a busy one, lots of research, lots of testing, and lots of idea generation, looking at things and working out how they will be used, and ultimately, how we can make them easier to use and more informative.  It is going to be a fantastic placement, one where I am sure I will learn a lot, and after my first day, I could not be more excited about the forthcoming months.

On another note, I received my rather posh invite to BYPY today, which takes place next week… it should be a great event, and after I have removed all of the little glitter stars from my keyboard (should have opened the box away from my desk!) I think I better consider getting my ‘black tie’ sorted… that can be a job for the weekend.

I am lucky enough to have grown up in a quiet little place of the world called Torbay.  In Torbay, life is a little slower, the average age is a little higher, and generally most places are only open in the Winter.  The people down in Devon don’t all speak like farmers, although some still do, but you will find that they are all very friendly and very proud of what is affectionally know as the English Riviera.  The place has changed a lot over the past few years, but then again where has remained the same. 

Last weekend, Laura and I travelled back to Devon to a family wedding, and the whole weekend reminded me of just how much you take the beach and the Sea for granted.  I grew up on the beach, spent all of my summers since I was 14 working on or next to the beach, and never lived more than 10 minutes away.  It was always so easy to take the dog for a run, or to go and watch the waves crash over the sea wall at high tide.  The weather at the weekend was fantastic, and while I should know better, I turned a little pink after mistakingly working in the back garden for no more than an hour!  But it was great to be home, great to get a little sun (even if it is a little sore now) and its always great to know that Devon is not that far away.  There is something about the beach, maybe because I have spent so much time there, but there are always happy memories, and there is always a place to be alone with nothing more than your thoughts.

If you are looking for your next holiday, I could not recommend the beaches of Torbay more highly… its come a long way since Fawlty Towers.  The picture below (if it works) is of the view from the Imperial Hotel in the middle of the day… absolutely fantastic.

As the Graduate Apprentice, I always know that each placement will only last 16 weeks, so you think it would be easier to leave… You see there are many many many advantages to being in the role… the variety, the opportunity, the challenge to name but a few.  The 16 weeks are always a challenge, as there is ultimately a limited amount of time to complete the set projects.  I’m quite proud, and I would not feel good about any placement without finishing what I had promised.  However, the 16 weeks also mean that this is the second time in less than 8 months where I have had to leave some great people behind, people who were not only fantastic work colleagues, but fantastic people to know.

During my time at LMM, I was involved in a number of projects.  Perhaps the most substantial was the launch of the new brand, CityQuarters.  In a nutshell, this is the aim of LMM to create a network of Serviced Apartments across the UK.  For those not familiar with Serviced Apartments, its basically having your own space while away from home.  Serviced Apartments are regularly being seen as the flexible alternative to hotels, and because of the extra space, the separate living areas and the flexibility of being able to come and go as you please, it is easy to see why.  However, it is very difficult to ensure a standard level of service with the apartments, with an accreditation, similar to the hotel starring system, only just being introduced.  Giles, the CEO at LMM, and the person I reported to directly as the Apprentice, wants to create a standard, consistent, quality serviced apartment network, so that if you need to stay in a key business city in the UK, you can be sure that staying with CityQuarters provides the same excellent service from city to city. 

The second major project involved testing of a piece of software which linked the Accounting and Apartment Management software used by the company… given my organised nature, and my eye for detail, it was deemed that I would be the right person to complete all the testing and update the accounting system with all the information for the previous financial year.  This built a whole new range of skills, including patience at times, but I am pleased to say that I left the company with this project completed… Now we wait for the auditors to check my work and say they are happy with the import link! My role also involved selling the serviced offices, another side of the proposition from LMM, meaning I was responsible for following up leads, ensuring that current clients had all they required to keep them happy, and for ensuring that expiring leases were renewed.

The challenge however, was not the best thing about working with the company, it was again made up by the team of people that I worked with.  In a small office, relationships can sometimes be difficult, but each and every individual brought something very different to the office while I was there.  All very excellent at the role they fill, and always able to offer advice and support to me as someone who was completely new to it all.  Even though I asked lots of questions, and bored them all with stories of LEJOG, they welcomed me into their team, and I was privileged to have spent time with them all.

In all, LMM was about multi-tasking, about proving that I could work on a number of projects at the same time and still ensure that each one was delivered with maximum efficiency.  I hope that throughout my time I have been able to do that, and that I have upheld the reputation of the Graduate Apprentice.  My successor will also be taking on a placement with LMM, and I am sure that if they have half of the experience I have had, they will come out a much wiser, much more commercially aware and able Graduate.  Like me, they will also have made some fantastic friends, who again like me, they will be sure to keep in touch with.

Like most Graduates, when I completed my degree I was assured that I had the skills I needed to go out into the real world and make a success of myself… exactly what that was doing was still up for debate, but at congregation, Bill Bryson informed me that I was ready to take on the world, and using the skills I had been equipped with though my three years at Durham, I would make a difference.  Now I am sure that without my years at Durham I would be in the position that I am now, but given that I am due to speak at Newman College in Birmingham later this month, its a good chance to reflect on the skills I thought that I had, and thought that I would need when I left University, and the skills that I feel are important to my role now, and importantly, my future career.

I spent a lot of time updating my CV just before Graduation, added some text to back up my career choices to date, and set about writing a small blurb on myself.  To do this, I attempted to talk about the skills that I thought I had shown to date, and how they could be important to business.  Team working was key to me, an ability to take on a number of roles within a team and to ensure that overall objectives are met.  I was also able to talk about my competitive nature as shown by my involvement with Rowing, as well as building on the commercial awareness that I picked up during a range of part time jobs before and through University.  Added to this, I put some general information about computer skills, a basic understanding of two European Languages. 

After turning all of the above into a more ‘readable’ group of sentences, I sat back and truly thought that I was fully equipped to take on the world.  However, the truth is that I had hardly begun to think about some of the skills that I would need when embarking on a professional services career.

These days, new graduates are expected to be able to cover all of the above as basic.  What is important now to employers, in my opinion, is a creative mind-set, the ability to look at a problem and find a solution that no-one else can.  To then be able to freely and effectively communicate that solution to others, is again vital.  You need to be able to talk to a wide range of people, and build a working relationship with them that provides both parties with benefits.  This means that you need to start thinking about building networks, something which after eight or so months as the Apprentice, I am sure is one of my most important soft skills.  Networking is something that can be learned, and I am reading a fantastic book at the minute which gives some idea of where to start, Andy Lopata’s “And death came third…“.  I am also a firm believer that creative thinking can also be taught, where you can encourage and develop your mind into thinking about problems in a new way, and as such, find innovative solutions.

There are also other very important skills that are key to a success in any time of business.  Simple telephone manner, the ability to write a coherent email, as well as being able to hold a simple yet intelligent conversation with a work colleague about a subject you feel strongly about… all key factors in getting noticed and becoming a success at work.  These seem to be very simple skills, but it would appear that not enough Graduates are making clear that they have them.  Perhaps its a lost art, I was certainly not taught how to write an email as part of my degree, but then again I imagine that those sorts of skills are Firm dependent, and as such are difficult to learn before you become part of the firm.

My next placement will take me to work with a Freelance Creative, Stefan Lewandowski who is one of the most creative people that I have met to date, and who represents a hugely active but not always appreciated market segment.  I have seen the benefits of creative thinking at work, and I am delighted that as the Apprentice I will have the chance to learn from one of the masters, and hopefully impart some of my creative thinking on the projects I will be involved with.

In all, I believe that there still is a skills gap, one between where Graduates think that they are following graduation and the skills that employers are expecting them to demonstrate.  I am delighted, and very humbled, at being given the chance to talk to people at Newman College about my experience, and all I am going to do is tell them to think about things a little differently, and hopefully that will help some of them.

I’m just back from another great evening out, again made by the company.  As the Apprentice, I’m fortunate enough to sit on Birmingham’s Future’s Graduates Into Employment Committee.  The group of volunteers aim to address the challenges faced by new graduates to the city, and to run events and workshops which encourage them to stay and help develop the way the city works.  They are responsible for the running of my job, The Graduate Apprentice, as well as the Welcome to Birmingham Event mentioned in previous posts.

Tonight, however, was not about work, and was a chance for us all to catch up over a Handmade Burger and a drink.  I choose the venue, and Mike from Marketing Birmingham was incredibly kind in picking up the bill. It was  a great chance to find out a little more about people, like how some like to surf, others play netball and all of us seem to be worried about when we are having kids… or rather our parents are! I’m only 23, so mine are way off yet, but at least I have chosen the names.

In all, it was again a great evening in a great city.  I know that I do rave on about it, but I really do believe that Birmingham is a fantastic place to be, a place made by the people within it.  Everyone involved with Birmingham Future are involved because they want to, and because they believe that they can add to the fantastic city that it is.  I spent an evening discussing where young professionals could live in the city, how difficult it is to find somewhere in the middle, with all of the benefits of a house, but still close enough to walk into the city centre.  We all decided that the lack of recycling in Birmingham is an issue, one which could be quite easy to address.  I guess the old phrase ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ springs to mind, but not allowing a tenant of a building to recycle commercial waste because the skip would create an eyesore is a problem… is no-one thinking about the long term?

I’m lucky to be in Birmingham, a few changes along the way and I would not be, but now that I am here, I am determined to make my mark on the city.  Birmingham Future, and the Graduates Into Employment Committee are one piece of the jigsaw, and again I am proud to be involved.  No other city can offer young professionals the chance to become involved in so much, as well as giving them the chance to build networks which grow and develop their business.  

In all, Handmade Burgers and like-minded young professionals are a great combination to fill an evening.  There truly are some fantastic people in Birmingham, with some fantastic ideas, and I look forward to a future where those ideas are realised.  

Friday evening saw the first LMM social event to take place while I have been with the company.  I had heard various stories of random evenings or Go-Karting, which all sounded like fun, but I had yet to be part of the infamous evenings!

The plan was to head for a quick drink at Bluu… a trendy new bar just off Summer Row, and then head to Pizza Express at Brindleyplace for some food.  After that, the evening was less planned… but in-fact, we might as well have made no plans at all! Bluu was really nice, nothing too fancy, but kind of understated and impressive at the same time (I do realise that makes no sense, but take a visit and see what I mean) and full of young professionals all doing what they do best on a Friday night.  Those who know me well know that I only drink on very special occasions, but that didn’t stop me admiring the impressive range of spirits behind the bar.  The bartender knew he stuff, made a cosmopolitan in a new but interesting way, and the atmosphere made it easy to sit back and contemplate a long week.

This was the point where it started to go a little wrong… the half past six reservation at Pizza Express soon became seven, then seven thirty, and then it was cancelled.  The menu at Bluu (not to mention the two bottles of wine needing drinking) meant that we moved to the restaurant for food.  Again, the staff were excellent, and added to a fantastic evening.  The food was great, again in keeping with the understated simplicity of the venue.  The steaks looked like a steak should, with plenty of garnish and giant real potato chips on the side.  Each was cooked exactly as ordered, and all the food arrived at the same time, which at a table of 13, can be a challenge.

More wine, sambucca, cocktails and in places water followed the food, all complemented by waiting staff always willing to take a few minutes to see how we were and to have a chat.  As the evening drew to a close (for some not all) I made my excuses and headed off home. 

Turning up on Monday morning there were still a few sore heads from a weekend spent recovering, and some great stories relating to various journeys home.  In all, my first social with LMM was a great one, and I hope its not my last.  Being the Apprentice does mean that I have to move on every sixteen weeks, and while that provides the exact challenge that I need to bring out my best, it also means that I leave some great colleagues behind at each employer. 

In all the evening was made by a great venue, great staff, great food and fantastic colleagues… cant get much better than that.

It seems little strange as my year has flown by so quickly, but the applications to take on the role of Graduate Apprentice are now open.  The website is up and running with all the information that you need to know, as well as some details about mine and Darvinder’s experiences.

I’m hoping for a fantastic candidate to fill the role, it really is the opportunity of a lifetime, and one is sure to change the career of the successful applicant.

The Graduate Apprentice and the work of the Graduates Into Employment committee was highlighted at last nights Deal of the Year awards and Birmingham Future AGM.  The outgoing chairman finished her year by pointing out that Birmingham Future are carving out a distinctive voice with which to shape the city for the next generation, and I am proud to be one of many who give over and above time and time again to ensure that the city continues to grow and develop… I believe that we have a fantastic future in Birmingham ahead.

In the summer of next year, I am planning to cycle from one end of the country to the other… it will affectionally be known as LEJOG. It is approximately 1000 miles, dependent on the route that we take. We will be my friend Tom Kay who I have known since secondary school and who has already made his way across America on a bike, and me, a bit of a fitness nut now that I can’t row and someone who gets bored easily so wanted to plan a trip! As a warm up cycle, I will be taking part in the Forest of Arden Cycle on the 27th April, the 60 mile route. This ride will be in aid of Action Medical Research, but will also be a test of how fit I really am… results will no doubt follow! Details on the ride can be found here:

http://www.action.org.uk/get_involved/forest_of_arden

Well here it goes, this is my first blog! After meeting Stef this morning, and finding out all about the exciting projects lined up for me, we decided that it would be a great idea if I blogged my progress!I’m new to he whole blogging thing, so give me time, but I’m going to start with updating my time so far as the Graduate Apprentice!

The fantastic advantage of being the Apprentice means that after sixteen weeks at a placement I move on to a new challenge, which makes it really easy to focus quickly and get my head down.  That is exactly what I did at Deloitte.

I joined in the second week of September, and was immediately working with the Deloitte Graduates who were part of the 2007 intake.  The International Tax team were a fantastic group of people, and we were all welcomed into the team with open arms and Free Drinks Friday…  In the UK, all personal tax returns have to be with HMRC by the 31st January, which meant that the four months leading up to this deadline were declared as ‘tax season’ across the accountancy trade.  This was a chance to see how a corporate giant really worked, in the middle of the busiest time of the year and to see if I could cope with my slice of the pressure.

The truth is that everyone at Deloitte are fantastic at their job, from the new Graduates to the Partners.  They are also always willing to lend a helping hand where they can… which when tax is all new to you, is great to know.  In my first week I was preparing tax returns, working on new client projects and helping to collate information relating to share plans for one of the largest clients of the team.  

I had never really dealt with much tax other than a few modules while at University, but I was quickly finding that its not all the number crunching that I had visions of it being… in-fact, the work done by the team was a lot more consultancy, giving advice on tax planning issues and helping to make the move abroad for work that much easier for the individuals we were working with.

Aside from the work, my time as Deloitte has left me with some great friends, who I still see out and about. After I left University, a lot of my friends went to work for Corporate firms, as that seems to be the thing to do.  It does provide the most structured and secure training platform for someone who is completely new to the working world, and for me, it was great to have that experience, to make the decision as to whether it suited my way of working.  The added bonus for me was that I would also see two smaller firms in my year, both working in very different markets and offering me the chance to meet more fantastic people.

I left Deloitte on the day of the Tax Christmas party, where heads were still a little sore from the Department Christmas party the night before… but I left knowing not only that I had helped with my share of the work in the season, but that I had met some people who really enjoyed what they did on a day to day basis.  That makes it so much easier to go into work, and to ask these people for help.  I asked for a lot of help while I was with the company, and I was never left out in the cold.

The corporate path does not suit everyone, but I really enjoyed my time, and without the Graduate Apprentice, it is a chance that I would never have had.