Reaching the end

Today is my last day at VC Consulting. So, technically my last day as the Graduate Apprentice. I’ve had a fantastic year, met some great people, and had a lot of fun along the way.

My time at VC has certainly been different to my other placements. It’s a very quiet office, and I’m often the only one in. It’s been interesting to see the differences between placements, and see what type of environment I prefer. I’ve enjoyed my time here, and had a lot of laughs with Shihab and Lawrence, often about chocolate, water, or Eton Mess

I’ve worked on lots of research project, including property, wine, solar-powered mobile phone chargers, and streaming live TV onto dual SIM phones in Bangladesh. I’ve taken part in client meetings, presented at workshops, and made my first trip to Costco! I’ve also this week been developing a blog for an overland trip to Bangladesh that Shihab and some of his Fyshnet colleagues are undertaking, and have learnt a lot more about the WordPress features over this time. Sorry it’s a year late!

It’s been interesting being involved in the Graduate Apprentice this year from the other side. It was great being involved in the interviews, and I actually found it quite nerve-wracking. The calibre of candidates this year was outstanding, and I’m sure that I wouldn’t have got through to the final round. Well done to everybody who took part, and especially to Richard Price, who is the new Graduate Apprentice, and will be starting in September.

It was great to see him at the You’re Hired event, and as I have secured a job at Deloitte , in the department when I was before, I shall be starting with him in September. I’m sure that he will have an amazing year.

Thank you to everybody who has supported me along the way. The year has flown by – I can’t believe it’s over. I’ve learnt a lot about myself along the way, and it has definitely helped me so far, and will continue to do so. I’ve done some great things, worked with lovely people, and had a fantastic time. I’ve even found love along the way…

Good luck to Richard, and thank you to everybody.

Emily x

Charity Gala Dinner

I’ve found my time at VC Consulting very interesting so far, and certainly very different. The office is much quieter than I’ve been used to, but still interesting. It’s also been very different working for an SME, compared to my previous roles. You tend to get involved in a lot more, and help out with bits of everything, as well as having your own set tasks, so I’m learning a lot.

I’ve recently been preparing a marketing strategy, which is something that, I’m sure a few months ago would have scared me a little, but I enjoyed researching for the project and writing it up. I found my maths hat again and enjoyed finding lots of figures and statistics to back up what I was saying. The project was on wine, which was definitely very interesting, even if it did make me want a glass every afternoon!

I’ve also been involved in several meetings and workshops with different clients. I’ve attended meetings with potential new clients, and helping to write proposals based on what we’ve discussed, and meetings with existing clients to see how we can help them develop their business further. I’ve also been involved recently in some workshops with a client who is looking at expanding his business, and this has been really interesting. It’s been really useful for me, not coming from a business related background to see all of the different aspects that I have seen, and understand them all.

One of the directors here, Shihab, is involve in an organisation called Fyshnet. Fyshnet aims to help entrepreneurs, professionals and recent graduates from the British Bangladeshi community develop their business, professional and social networks. Shihab is heavily involved in this, and one of the events they have recently organised was attendance at the cricket match between England and Bangladesh at Edgbaston on Monday. Then, in the evening, there was a charity gala dinner, which Shihab had invited me along to. This was a really good event, with key speakers, and the Bangladeshi cricket team being guests of honour. I sat with some interesting people, and ate some very nice, if spicy food. Overall, a good night, and hopefully a successful one for everybody too.

Meeting the Birmingham Forward Board

A while ago, I was asked to present to the Birmingham Forward board on being the Graduate Apprentice, and what I’d gained from it. The time soon came round to do this presentation, and I really enjoyed it.

I was originally going to be there with Jason Norris, previous Graduate Apprentice, and chair of TRaD committee, but, due to a very long cycle ride (over 1000 miles) he couldn’t make. The meeting was to be held at Barclays Wealth, on Colmore Row. Unfortunately, it was a pretty miserable morning that day, but I arrived relatively dry.

I met Gareth Morgan, who is the chair of the Strategy committee, and who was also presenting to the board. We both went in, and took a seat. I did my presentation first, speaking about each of the three placements in turn, what I’d be doing at each one, what I felt I learnt, and what i gained from each placement. Everybody seemed impressed with the scheme, and with me, and a few questions were asked. Gareth then went on to do an excellent presentation on the business strategy he had prepared.

Although slightly nervous beforehand, I enjoyed doing the presentation, and the feedback afterwards. All of the board members were really nice, and enjoyed what I had to say.

BRMB Walkathon… 26 Miles Complete!

So, a couple of weeks ago, I completed the BRMB Walkathon. It was tough, and not pretty, but I’m glad that I did it. After staying at my friend’s house the night before, as she lives near one of the starting points, we headed over to Summerfield Park at about 8:15. The weather was looking ok, it was dry at least, and reasonably bright. We were loaded with supplies for the way, and smiles on our faces. After reporting in, we had a bit of a wait (we thought it would be busier than it was – turns out King’s Heath park was a popular starting point). There was then a group warm up session for everybody, which involved lots of stretching and preparing for the house ahead.

We got in the queue for the starting line, and after the 9am news, we were off! The sun was out, and all was good. People were happy and jolly, and plenty of discussions about the Britain’s Got talent final were overheard! I was walking with two colleagues from Birmingham Metropolitan College (my second placement), and the boyfriend of one of them. After about five miles in, we separated into two pairs, and carried on.

The community spirit was great to see, with one young boy shouting outside of his house with a megaphone, “People doing the Walkathon, come and get your free drinks”, with a tray full of squash for people to have. We also walked past a garden with two chairs set out, with a notice saying “For tired walkers”. Lots of people were beeping their horns and cheering us on, and the marshalls were congratulating everybody as they saw them. Ann and I even had a family wind the windows of their car down and start clapping us!

Despite my (minimal) training, after about 20 miles, I was starting to get tired. We came to a marker telling us we had walked 19.6 miles, and feeling a bit disheartened that we hadn’t done more, I told Ann to go on ahead as I was tired, was going to have a short rest and that I would only slow her down. Ann went on and achieved a very good time After my little sit down, couple of paracetamol, and nearly a bag of jelly babies, I was feeling much better. this was helped by the free chocolate being handed out as I walked past Cadbury World I then came to another marker telling me I had walked 22.4 miles, and now the end was in sight.

However, then it started raining. At first, it was just a little shower, which was actually quite nice, as it had got pretty warm around midday and so the rain was quite refreshing. But then, it really started. I assumed it was just a short, heavy shower that would pass very soon. A few minutes in, it was still going, and I thought it best to put my waterproof jacket on. Good idea, although my clothes underneath were pretty drenched already.

Those last few miles were actually pretty fun. It didn’t stop raining for the rest of the walk, but that made it more interesting. I think if that rain had have come down and I still had a lot more to go, I would have struggled. But it was all part of it. I met up with some people we’d met earlier in the day, and had a good chat with them as we were walking along, and it was nice.

The last couple of miles were along some sort of woodland trail, leading to Summerfield Park. I thought, that as the path was sheltered, it would be ok, but no, it was still torrential. With a mile to go, I contacted my parents to say I was nearly there, as they wanted to meet me at the finish line, and I got a final burst of energy. Unfortunately the last few metres were uphill, so, emerging from the woods, absolutely dripping wet, I staggered up the hill, and gave a wave to my parents. 7.5 hours later and I’d made it! I then collected my medal and had some photographs taken.

Overall, a brilliant day, and lots of fun. Congratulations to all those who took part, and well done. Thank you to BRMB and the sponsors for organising it – the road signs were very useful and I could see that a LOT of effort must have gone into it. Finally, thank you to all the people who sponsored us, and have helped ro raise money to Build a Home for the Brave. (P.S. Our sponsor page is till open if there is anybody who wants to make a donation – http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/HRTeam )

Worst part of the day – none really! The pain wasn’t that bad at all, and a couple of days later I was absolutely fine.
Best part of the day – my Mum, at the finish line, greeting me with, “Em, you look like you’ve lost about 3 stone!” Woop, thanks Mum

BRMB Walkathon

Along with two of my colleagues from the HR department at Birmingham Metropolitan College, we are taking part in the BRMB Walkathon on Sunday. This is going to be tough, but with all proceeds going to help ‘Build a Home for the Brave’, in Birmingham, it really is a great cause. therefore, any sponsorship would be gratefully received!!

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/HRTeam

BYPY

Last Thursday was the prestigious Birmingham’s Young Professional of the Year event. Held at the ICC, over 750 attended to celebrate the success of the young professionals in this city. It was a chance for everybody to get dressed up, and socialise with people over the whole evening.

Categories for BYPY included Communications, Entrepreneurial, Financial Services, Legal, Property and Construction, and Recruitment and Training, with an overall winner being chosen from the above categories. A very successful night for the Graduate Apprentice team,  with James Villarreal winning in both his category, and overall. James established Glide Utilities, which is one of the placement companies the Graduate Apprentice 2010 will be working at.

Overall, a great night, delicious food, lovely dresses, and a great opportunity to meet new people, and see people I hadn’t seen in a while. Good times indeed!

Starting at VC Consulting

So, I’ve been at VC Consulting for a couple of weeks, and it’s certainly different to what I’ve done before! Located in the Jewellery Quarter, they have a small office, with a small team. Shihab and Lawrence are the Directors, and Nosheen is doing an internship there. All very nice people It’s been quite a change for me, working in a much smaller team, and it’s definitely a lot quieter there! I’m usually in the office for between half an hour and an hour on my own in the morning, as meetings tend to happen in the mornings.

The work I’ve been doing so far has involved market research for a property business. I’ve learnt a lot about the property business over the last couple of weeks, finding out about things I never even knew existed. I was a little worried before I started that my lack of business experience would be a problem (my degree was in maths), but so far, this has not been an issue, as everybody is more than willing to help explain things to me. I’ve been on a couple of trips out, one to the VW garage and Mercedes garage, which was quite exciting, even if I’m not too au fait on cars, and the other to Costco, which was an experience in itself!

After my first two weeks, I can definitely say that I will learn a lot about the business world through VC, and I look forward to this.

Being the Graduate Apprentice

I’m now two-thirds through my year of being the Graduate Apprentice. With the interviews being held tomorrow for the next Apprentice, I thought I would reflect a little on my time so far.

I’ve learnt, throughout my experience, that being the Apprentice is not just a Monday to Friday, 9-5 office job. There is so much more to it! A few weeks ago I went to Newman University College to give a presentation to a couple of groups of 100 students on the benefits of work experience, and my experiences so far. Although slightly nerve-wracking at first, I enjoyed this a lot, and really hope that at least somebody took something away from it. These days, with so many people having degrees, it is so important to have something extra about you, to make you the most employable candidate when you go for interviews.

I’ve enjoyed the networking events that I’ve attended, with one in particular being successful. I also recently attended a Speed Networking event, which was really good fun! I met lots of interesting people that night, with a coffee meet up planned with one, and another one, who I had met at a previous event being very good friends with one of my new employers (starting next week). So I have no doubt I shall be seeing him again soon. It’s always slightly tricky at such events meeting the right people, but I’ve learnt that you have nothing to lose by talking to people, and everything to gain!

Generally, people don’t know much about the Apprentice, and haven’t really heard about it. However, people always think that it sounds like a great scheme, and a good chance to experience different working environments.

The people on the TRaD committee with me, are great, and it’s always good to catch up at the committee meetings, even if we usually are a little blurry eyed at that time of the morning!

I’m sitting in on the presentations that the candidates are doing tomorrow, and looking forward to hearing from them. I can’t believe it’s been a year since I was chosen to be the Apprentice, but it’s been an amazing experience so far, with a lot more to come!

Good luck for everybody attending the interview tomorrow – I look forward to meeting you

Finishing at Birmingham Metropolitan College…

So, on Friday, my four months in the HR department at Birmingham Metropolitan College were up. And it was a sad day, with a few tears shed! However, I enjoyed the placement a lot, and learnt a lot about myself, and what I like to do.

Having never worked in HR before, I knew it would an interesting experience, and one that I was looking forward to. I did a lot of work with recruitment, helping new employees get started, hourly paid members of staff, assessors, and lots of general queries. I attended investigatory meetings, taking minutes, which was quite challenging, and I also recently undertook a project ensuring that all members of staff had an up-to-date criminal record check. This involved lots of direct contact with lots of members of staff, which was something I really enjoyed. I don’t know if I would have had the confidence to do this at the beginning of my placement, but throughout the experience, as I learnt more, I became much more confident within the department.

The team that I worked with were absolutely lovely, I don’t think that I could have asked for a nicer bunch of people to work with. I will certainly miss them!!

When I first applied for the Graduate Apprentice, the College was then Matthew Boulton College and Sutton Coldfield College, which have subsequently merged to become Birmingham Metropolitan College. Not long after I had started, all of our computers were migrated, which was a little challenging for some people, who were very much used to the way they had always known. But change is integral to moving on, and being able to adapt to these changes is a very important quality. There will be many changes coming for staff there, and I wish everybody working at the College the best of luck for the future.

Although the campus where I was based, in Great Barr, was a bit of a trek away, there were certainly many benefits. I had a free personal trainer from about week 1, with free use of the gym whenever I wanted. I’ve had haircuts, and on my last day, there was an assessor in the hair and beauty school, and clients were needed, so I was given a free manicure

Although Birmingham Met was a great place to work, I did learn that HR is not the route for me. I am not one for conflict, of which there is quite a lot in HR, and sometimes, I found it difficult to not get too involved. At the end of the day, somethings that are dealt with, and I helped with, affect whether people have a job or not. With delicate things like this, I found it very difficult to switch off when I finished work, and not keep thinking about them. However, I did enjoy working in a smaller team, and felt that I got to know most people in my team very well.

I would like to say a big thank you to them all for putting up with me (and my laugh), and numerous questions throughout my four months, and thanks for making my experience such an enjoyable one

Long time, no blog…

Oops, not a lot of time lately for blogging. So I will try and catch up now!

This last month has been great in terms of getting up, as I am now driving to work I can get up at a reasonable time now, and this is making a big difference to me. No more falling asleep in the cinema for me!! I’m also loving the freedom I feel by being able to drive, although not so much the petrol costs!!

A couple of weeks ago, I attended the National Wedding Show at the NEC, with a friend. This was a great day out, and I would definitely recommend it to anybody who is getting married soon. However, it was pretty tiring, with lots of information given to us, but pretty useful. And lots of freebies too!

I’m still seeing my personal trainer every week, and had a second fitness last week. I can now consume about 2700 calories everyday to maintain my weight which I’m quite pleased about! I’m keeping up with going to the gym several times a week too, which is good. In fact, tonight is spinning. Oh, the joys…

Work at Birmingham Metropolitan College is going really well. Although I’m not sure whether HR is the career route for me, I’m enjoying the work, and helping the team to implement a new filing system. My colleagues there are really lovely people, and we’ve had several social events lately.

On Saturday night I attended a Bollywood Ball in aid of a new neonatal unit at the hospital. I was there with some people from the college, and it was a fabulous night. I had never worn Indian clothes before, but it wsa great to get dressed up. There were some beautiful outfits, and an array of lovely colours. All very pretty!

My next challenge, that for some reason I have chosen to do, is the BRMB Walkathon. This is a 26 mile walk around Birmingham. QUite how this is going to go, I’m not sure, but we shall see. Sponsorship is going well and I’m training at the moment. However, I am prepared for the pain that will come from it!