My year as the Graduate Apprentice 2007.
By Jason Norris
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Being the Graduate Apprentice was definitely more of an experience than a job. During a very fast-paced 12 months, I undertook three very different roles with three separate companies based in Birmingham.
I applied for the role as the Apprentice as I was unsure of where my career was heading once I graduated. Unlike my friends, I was hesitant to accept a role I was unsure about. Instead I opted for the opportunity to learn more about three separate types of business and then make an informed decision on which suited me best. Being new to the West Midlands, I was also keen to learn about the business community and to become an active member in the new initiatives that Birmingham is involved with. Through its links with Birmingham Future, the Graduate Apprentice gave me the chance to do all of this and more.
My first placement was with one of the ‘big four’ accountancy firms, Deloitte, working in their International Tax department. This was completely new to me, an area which was unstudied and where I had visions of number crunching, but I could have been no farther from the truth. The people at Deloitte were fantastic; really welcoming me into the team and the work was always varied. I had interaction with clients and I was involved in winning work for the firm as well as learning a huge amount about the very complicated area of tax. At all times, there were plenty of people around to ask questions, and rather than give me the answers, they always gave me the tools to find them for myself, which for me was a really productive way of learning.
Placement two moved me onto property management firm LMM, a company with around 10 employees; far different to the corporate giant of Deloitte. The experience of working in a much smaller firm is invaluable, knowing how decisions are made and understanding the various different relationships that exist within a small office. The work itself was hugely varied, drawing on my marketing experience and my newly learnt accountancy skills. I was involved in real-time marketing projects, being able to see my work actually used and seeing the results that it generated.
Placement three was always going to be a little different and it was certainly that. The first two placements, with Deloitte and LMM respectively, gave me fantastic insight into the work of two corporate firms. However, with Stef Lewandowski, ex BYPY and recent father, I found myself helping out with a huge range of diverse projects, no job description and a flexible working environment. The majority of my work was to help to launch the latest social network http://odadeo.com, designed especially with fathers in mind. Created as a direct result of Stef becoming a new Dad, the network aims to help Dads be a better dad. As the community manager, I was in touch with a huge range of Dads, finding out what they want from the site and feeding it directly into the development process. The site is going to be a huge success, and I’m incredibly lucky to have been part of its birth as the Apprentice.
In all, as I have come to the end of my year as the Graduate Apprentice, I can look back at the invaluable new skills I’ve learnt, the huge range of experience that I now have, but most importantly, the fantastic people that I have been fortunate enough to meet and work with. My year has gone far beyond my initial expectations, and as I now return to Deloitte to begin a career in International Tax, I know that being the Graduate Apprentice has been the first step on a vibrant and challenging career within Birmingham, and I could not be better prepared for the journey.
I could not recommend applying to the Graduate Apprentice more highly…. This opportunity could change and shape your future career and the application process could not be simpler thanks to the graduate recruitment expertise of Graduate Advantage who jointly manage the programme with Birmingham Future.
It’s opened doors to opportunities I never knew existed and made my CV stand out from all my peers. It is the most unique way to start a career in the professional and financial services sector, I can think of.
For me the Graduate Apprentice was not just a job, it was an experience, and a fantastic one at that.