Alan M.
About me
| Alan M. | |
| Philosophy | |
| Philosophy | |
| Undergraduate | |
| 2013 | |
| United Kingdom |
My employment
| Graduate - General Management programme | |
| Lloyds Banking Group | |
| United Kingdom | |
| Finance and consultancy | |
| 2014 | |
| £28000 |
Like this profile?
Add this profile to your favourites so you can return to it later from your account.
A day in the life of a Graduate - General Management programme in the United Kingdom
Where I hope to be in 5 years
The Emerging Talent graduate programme at Lloyds is designed for the graduates to quickly progress to senior management, and to go on to become the bank's future leaders. Thus, so long as I am good enough to be promoted, there is excellent scope for progression within the bank.
My advice to students considering work
Most employers look for intelligent individuals irrespective of what their degree was in. This is because you can teach most people the technical skills required to do their jobs. It is the soft skills that are highly sought after, particularly on competitve graduate programmes. So, do not feel that because you did Philosophy/History that you cannot go into finance/retail/whatever, and make sure that you are comfortable communicating complex ideas, leading people, working in a team etc - be able to point to examples of when you have demonstrated these capabilities.
Make sure you know the differences between the various types of banking, and know how the industry fits together. Have a wide general knowledge, from politics to scientific developments, as it can all affect what you are working on. As such, read a good newspaper and a magazine like The Economist to stay atop current affairs.
My advice about working in my industry
Make sure you know the differences between the various types of banking, and know how the industry fits together. Have a wide general knowledge, from politics to scientific developments, as it can all affect what you are working on. As such, read a good newspaper and a magazine like The Economist to stay atop current affairs.
What I do
I am on a General Management graduate programme at Lloyds Banking Group. As a result, I have a series of placements in which I will undertake a quite diverse range of roles.
At present, I work in Cyber Security at the bank. I am part of a team that looks to create and implement strategies for the bank in order to mitigate the potential of a cyber attack upon Lloyds.
Skills I use and how I developed them
Extracurricular skills:
The key skills I use in my job are soft skills such as being able to communicate complex information clearly, problem solving, critical thinking, teamwork and leadership skills. The majority of these skills you will develop as part of your degree, but it is helpful to supplement this by taking on 'extra-cirricular' roles whilst at university. For instance, I was the Managing Director of Nouse, which really helped to develop my leadership skills, teamwork skills, and so on - but it also helped me to demonstrate at interviews that I actually had developed these skills.
What I like most
The role is challenging - cyber security is a fast-paced industry - threats can evolve daily - so it is an interesting place to work. I have also enjoyed learning about cyber security; I had no prior training in computers before joining the team, so I had to develop a completely new set of skills for the job.
What I like least
There isn't anything I really haven't enjoyed thus far working in Cyber Security, but it is difficult knowing that in a couple of months I will be in another role, and possibly in another city, which means that when working on longer term projects, you do not actually know if you will be completing them.
Next steps...
If you like the look of Alan’s profile, the next steps are down to you! You can send Alan a message to find out more about their career journey.