Catching up

I realise it’s been a couple of weeks since I last posted anything here so I will try to catch up! I’m really really enjoying my placement at Birmingham Metropolitan College. I’m learning a lot about HR, and it’s interesting seeing it from a different side. I’ve mainly been dealing with recruitment and new starters, as well as general queries, and on Monday, I went to the Sutton campus to help with the shortlisting for a vacancy we had. This was very interesting, and quite difficult in some respects, but I enjoyed it. The team that I am working with are absolutely brilliant, and it’s a great office to work in. I feel like I settled in pretty much straight away, which is really nice. Makes my journey in worthwhile!

It was the TRaD committee meeting this week. I missed the last one because I was supposed to be having my driving test (which then got cancelled because of the bad weather grrr). It was great to see everybody again and to catch up with what’s been going on. I also managed to catch up with a few people from Deloitte, who I worked with before Christmas, and it was good to see them

I’m sticking to the programme my personal trainer has made for me, which means I’m at the gym a fair bit after work these days, but I quite enjoy it. Hopefully it will start to pay off soon!

I have a meeting with Nick, my mentor, this week, and I haven’t seen him since before Christmas, so it will be good to catch up. He was helpful with giving me some advice a couple of weeks ago, but will be good to catch up properly. I’m also attending some meetings at the Sutton campus on Monday afternoon, training all day on Wednesday, and attending a Staff Development day on Friday, so a pretty busy week ahead!!

Haircuts and personal trainers…

… Are just some of the perks of my new job. Because the students are completing courses, they need people to help them complete their assignments. Hence the phone calls to our office asking if anybody wants to go for a hair cut, and the 12-week personal training sessions. I’m liking it all very much! I met with my personal trainer last week and we just talked and filled in forms about what I do at the moment, and what I want to get out of the sessions. I’m meeting him again this week to have a fitness test, and then to start on the training! Although a little scared, I’m looking forward to it.

I’ve really enjoyed my first two weeks at Birmingham Metropolitan College. The working environment is very different to that of Deloitte, but not in a bad way. We listen to the radio whilst we’re working, have lots and lots of laughs, and get lots of work done. We’re all pretty busy at the minute, which I like, as it means there is always something to do, and I’m learning all the time.

Amenda held a Mexican themed party on Friday night which for me, was one of the funniest nights I’ve had in a while I think. Even though I’ve only known these people for a couple of weeks, I’m getting on really well with them, and having lots of fun.

I’m getting used to the journey a little more now too. I’m still knackered when I get home, but I’m getting used to it! Unfortunately, my driving test was cancelled this week because of the bad weather, which means that I’ll be using public transport a little longer. I’ve no doubt that I’ll have a few issues  with this, but it can’t be helped!

Snow Day!

Given that Birmingham Metropolitan College is closed today because of the snow, and hence no work for me, I thought I should use the opportunity to catch up here.

After only having worked there for two days, I really love it there! The people I’m working with are so nice and there is lots of fun and jokes going around! Everybody is very approachable, especially with me being annoying and asking questions all the time!

At the moment I’m not doing anything too advanced, but I have a meeting tomorrow morning (hopefully) to help me learn about one aspect of HR work. The whole environment, as expected, is very different to that of Deloitte, but still very enjoyable.

A big benefit is the free gym there (after I was trying to decide whether I could justify paying £40 a month for something I probably won’t use very often), and yesterday we were offered sessions with a personal trainer for 12 weeks for free! That’s a pretty good incentive to help with my new years resolution of losing weight!! Having massages and a beauty salon is also pretty good!

So, only 2 days in, but I think I’m going to like this placement

Happy New Year

Happy new year to everybody, I hope it’s a good one and brings us all plenty of happy memories. It’s strange to think that this time last year I was in the process of applying for jobs, waiting on interviews/assessment centres, and trying to decide what I was going to be doing in a few months time. I don’t think I could ever have predicted I would have been so lucky with the Graduate Apprentice, and the opportunities it has given me. Appearing in the newspaper (more than once!), attending different networking events, meeting lots of different and interesting people, and having such a good time working at Deloitte are just some of my highlights of the latter end of last year.

My 16 weeks at Deloitte flew by. Now, the day before I start my next placement, I have the same feeling of nervousness mixed with excitement that I had at the beginning of September. I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect, but that placement exceeded all of my expectations. I learnt a lot from working there, not just about international tax, but about working in general, and making it not just about the 9-5 stuff. I left in December on a really good note, and am looking forward to seeing friends that I made there soon.

Regarding tomorrow, the nerves are starting to surface now. However, I’m really looking forward to it at the same time. Having met the team already a couple of times, everybody seems really nice, and I’m sure they will make me feel welcome. The work will be very different to anything I’ve done before, but I see that as a positive thing, and a chance for me to discover more about what I enjoy doing and am good at. The environment will be very different, but I’m glad of the opportunity to see what I ultimately prefer. The only thing I’m not looking forward to is leaving at 6:30 to get there!!

Here’s to a successful year, and an interesting one too!

Merry Christmas

Just a quick note to say Merry Christmas to one and all. I hope that everybody enjoys it, and has a relaxing time. Although for a lot of people, Christmas may be their favourite time of year, for others, it can be a very difficult time. It’s hard sometimes, not having somebody around, not seeing them on Christmas morning, not seeing their name on a Christmas card. But rather than dwelling on the sad times, it’s important to make the most of what we have, and enjoy spending time with the people that mean a lot to us. So, remember, and don’t forget, but enjoy it as well.

Merry Christmas everybody!

Finally started!

The Christmas shopping has finally started!! And is almost finished, a bit like my placement at Deloitte. I now have just 4 days left. It’s quite scary how quickly it’s gone by. I’ve really enjoyed it all, and feel that I’ve learnt a lot from it. Last week I visited Amenda and the team, at Birmingham Metropolitan College, where I’ll be working after Christmas. They’ve recently moved to a new campus, and are still adjusting, but they are a really nice team, and I’m looking forward to moving over there. The work will be very different, never having done  anything with HR before, but I am looking forward to the challenge. It will also be interesting working in the public sector – I think I might enjoy leaving at 5!

I’ve had quite a lot of social commitments on recently, as well as work related things, which is why there’s been a lack of posts. But hopefully I can catch up now! I had a meeting recently with Nicola Masters, who I met at the Birmingham Future new members lunch a couple of months ago. Nicola is a very pro active young professional, and is very successful. It was really good to meet her, and hopefully I shall see her again soon.

Friday was a very busy day, with our end of year meeting in the afternoon. Part of the meeting was the new graduates’ performance – this year, our theme was The TaX Factor. I was part of the girl group Miss Frank, and it did go ok in the end. The best part of it all was seeing my friends Nick and Matt perform as John and Edward. I think they may have been the funniest thing people had seen all year long. Thanks to Vicky, Karen and Aimee for helping to organise it all, and well done to everybody who was involved, especially Chris. Well done to all the people who actually got up and sang, I admire you for it!

Secret Santa gifts were given out after this (I was very pleased with my wine and chocolates ) and then it was the Deloitte Christmas party. It was a really, really good night, and I had such a fun time. We started with a lovely meal in Opus, and then some comedy awards were given out. There was then a surprisingly touching part where two of our team played their guitars and sang along. Again, I admire them for doing this in front of everybody, and it was really good. Lots of wine, and several shots later, we moved on to Bluu Bar, where we had a good dance, and like the rest of the evening, lots and lots and lots of laughs. I’ve made some really good friends at Deloitte, and I will miss some people a lot!

Busy Busy Busy

I’ve been quite busy over the last couple of weeks, hence the lack of posts. But I shall try to catch up!

I had last Monday off work, which was quite nice, and had my driving test, which was not quite so nice. In fact, considering that I failed, it was not very nice at all! Nerves got the better of me, and I made a silly mistake. However, I have recovered now, and am fine about it. I now know what to expect from the next one, and hopefully, will be ok then! Fingers crossed anyway.

I took part in the Deloitte quiz last week also, which was good fun. Although when I say took part, it was more listening to Jason and the other guy in our team come out with all the answers! We didn’t win, but we did pretty well, especially considering that we were a small team. And apparently we had the highest score per individual, because we were smaller than the other teams, so very succesful! It was a fun night anyway, and for charity, so it was good.

Lots of preparation has been going into the Christmas Deloitte meeting. The topic of which is still remaining top-secret, but it will require me to have a lunchtime beverage beforehand so I can do what I need to do! Hopefully it will all be good fun, although I think people will be laughing at us a lot more than with us!

I helped Ben and Craig at a careers recruitment event at Birmingham City University this week. It’s a little surreal, promoting my job to people, when it feels like I’ve only just started (when in fact I’ve nearly finished the first placement!). It reminded me of looking for graduate jobs this time last year. I don’t envy anybody trying it, but the more you apply for, the more experience you will gain, and this is very useful. We got quite a few people who seemed quite interested in the scheme, so hopefully we’ll have some good applications this year. I was also asked if I would mind being filmed, by a group of final year students, who were making a piece on career events. I’m starting to feel like a celebrity now with the photo shoots and tv experiences the Graduate Apprentice scheme has led me to! The group are going to email me the finished product when they’ve done it, so we shall see then how it turned out!

Thursday night was a TRaD night out, which was good fun. Because normally the committee meetings are at 8am, when people are not always fully awake, and also rushing off afterwards to get to work, it was nice to socialise with people, and get to know them better.

A long weekend for me this weekend, as I had yesterday off, and I also have Monday off. A lot of yesterday was filled with searching around for a new savings account, which hopefully I have now found, but when people were asking me about mortgages and things, I felt quite grown up! I was supposed to start my Christmas shopping, but this descended into shopping for myself instead, which was nice Monday is when it may start…

Catching up

I realise it’s been a while since I last posted on here, however, it’s been quite busy lately!

Almost two weeks ago I attended the Cobbett’s Young Professionals Spooky Sushi Event. I didn’t know anybody attending, aside from my mentor, Nick, but I had a really good time and met some interesting people, one of whom I have already seen a couple of times since, which has been nice.

I’ve had a lot of socialising to do lately which has been lots of fun. I’ve been catching up with old friends, and meeting new ones. I’ve attended a Halloween party, and had another Friday free drinks night. Unlike the first one, I now know my colleagues a lot better, and that was a fun night! This week there is a quiz night, hosted by Deloitte, which should be interesting! I’m not too good at quizzes, but I’m sure we will all try our best! The quiz is supporting the Alzheimer’s Society. I have a lot of personal experience with Alzheimer’s Disease, and I think this is a very good cause to help.

 

Public Transport

Ah, the joys of public transport. I have always defended public transport to my friends, having always been quite a frequent user of buses and trains. In fact it wasn’t that long since I started learning to drive (I have my test very soon and am quite nervous!). For me, I never felt the need to learn to drive as soon as I turned 17, and was very much in the minority with my peers there. Yes, public transport has its inconveniences, but long-term it is cheaper and potentially handy.

Until the delays start. I’ve had a very unfortunate week with trains this week. On Wednesday my usual 25 minute train journey turned into a 1.5 hour train journey. And all because of “signalling problems”, which is what the problem always seems to be (although once the driver did announce that the train was going to have to terminate at the next station because the next driver had not turned up for work – nothing like brutal honesty eh?). Anyway, the train was stop, start, stop, stop, stop, start, stop again. And then got cancelled at Birmingham International, and so there was a mass intrusion onto a train heading to Holyhead, for us folk to get to Birmingham New Street. Going home that night, the journey was fine, so I assumed the problem was fixed. Until I got on the train the next morning, and ended up being delayed by about 25 minutes. However, this driver told us that the problem was because some annoying people had stolen the line side cable near to Berkswell. This was the cable that powered the signals, hence the delays. A little further into the journey he told us that it was fixed; a generator had been brought in (let’s assume not on the train else it would have taken even longer). A friend of mine was returning to Coventry from Birmingham that night, and experienced delays again, because of signalling problems at Berkswell. Grrrrr. So, come Friday morning, I left my house at 7, to ensure I would get to work on time, and luckily I did. Although my usual train was running late, and I was on a train that was running late too, but worked out ok for me. Although not for some of the other passengers.

I understand that there will inevitably sometimes be delays with trains and buses etc., but keeping people informed is vital. On the train that I was on on Wednesday morning, people were starting to get very frustrated and angry. I’ve no doubt that a few complaints will have been sent in this week.

On Thursday morning, I looked at the board detailing the departure times of the forthcoming trains. Of the 9 on there, 4 were cancelled, 3 were running late, 1 was a rail replacement bus, and there was one train that was running on time. Good service there.

I know that  unfortunately there are accidents on the road, and so delays are going to happen there. But people pay a lot of money to travel by public transport and expect a good service. Generally, I find it works well. But when it doesn’t, it can be a disaster.

After my very eventful week, the extra hour in bed this morning was very gratefully received!!

Half way through…

I cannot believe that I am now at the half way point of my placement at Deloitte. It’s quite scary how quickly it’s gone, and also that I only have 8 weeks left there. I feel very settled now, and am really getting into the work. Hopefully I’m making a good impression with everybody!

I had an interesting meeting this week with the other new starters, and a couple of more senior colleagues. Every year at a Christmas meeting, the new starters have to put on a performance, tax related. Last year, the group did a Blind Date sketch, with the most suitable date being the one most knowledgeable about tax, Our theme is top secret until the day, but it should be very entertaining!

I attended a Welcome lunch this week, for people new to Birmingham Future. This was a really good event, and I really enjoyed it. I met a few interesting people, and have arranged to meet one of them for a catch up in a few weeks, which should be really useful.

I also have the Cobbetts Young Professionals event on this week, which I’m looking forward to. It will be good to meet some people like me, and hopefully will be an entertaining night!