Natalie C.
About me
| Natalie C. | |
| Politics, Economics and Philosophy | |
| Economics and Politics | |
| Undergraduate | |
| Derwent | |
| 2007 | |
| United Kingdom |
My employment
| Policy and Reward Manager at London 2012 (currently on a 3 1/2 year secondment) | |
| Deloitte | |
| United Kingdom | |
| Finance and consultancy | |
| 2007 |
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A day in the life of a Policy and Reward Manager at London 2012 (currently on a 3 1/2 year secondment) in the United Kingdom
Where I hope to be in 5 years
Since being at Deloitte I was promoted from Analyst (graduate scheme) to Consultant and successfully gained an initial year secondment and then a more senior role for a further 2 1/2 year secondment to London 2012. During my time on secondment I hope to be promoted to Senior Consultant. From here it is possible to continue gaining expertise across a range of businesses from Consulting, although I will have achieved a sound grounding in business and business solutions to be able to choose to leave Consulting and specialise in a more specific industry if I should choose to, essentially the options are open at the moment!
My advice to students considering work
Start early - it makes 3rd year/ travelling a lot easier if you know what you are doing post University. It also means you have more time to find something else if your first choice doesn't work out.
Use the careers service and York Award, employers' website, friends, brothers, sisters, parents' friends to discuss all careers you can to try and find out more about what might be for you - don't use the excuse 'I just don't know what I want to do' - give things a try and find out more about a range of things.
Get as much work experience as you can, particularly in the industry where you want to work, but if not gain some experience in different places which may enable you to find out, and even if you think it's not relevant, you have probably learnt something from it that is.
Be a part of something other than your degree course - the academics will get you the interview, but it will be the other interests and experiences which you will talk about in the interview to demonstrate the skills that will be needed in the job you are applying for.
Get used to what is expected of you in interviews, so that you can be well prepared, and whatever interview you go to make them think that you only want to work for them (whether or not you have applied to everyone in the industry).
Don't limit your options too much (although be selective enough to use your time effectively)- make decisions once you have the job offers on the table.
Remember a graduate job is a starting block, you don't have to define your whole career at 20, just look out for the opportunities which open up on the way. It is much easier to get a job once you have 2 years good experience with a good brand than it is when you are starting out.
What I do
Consulting on a day-to-day basis means working in teams, both from Deloitte and from the client out on the client site to deliver solutions in their business. I work in the Organisation and Change area so that looks at the people element of solutions. I worked with Subject Matter Experts from the client to map global processes for an HR function of a global organisation (had previously been delivered locally) and then worked to make decisions as to whether individual countries require alterations to these procedures due to local legislation. Creating writing guidelines to ensure local operating procedures are written in a consistent format and reviewing these and mapping processes on visio. A lot of time was spent resolving queries from all regions around the world - I spent a lot of time on conference calls to the various teams or working with the client subject matter experts from each country to understand the local legislation. I also helped in delivering training to a large function of a large insurance provider, so this included writing training modules around how to be a high performing team and delivering them in the organisation. I was then involved in workforce planning, this is looking at what the workforce needs of an organisation are going to be for the future and forecasting any gaps, then looking at solutions to fill these gaps. A lot of Consulting is the ability to deal with people, work to tight deadlines and have the flexibility to respond to change. You also have to be prepared to travel - I spent my first year living in Holland Monday to Thursday and one role was based back in York!
Skills I use and how I developed them
I completed an internship at Deloitte in the Summer of my 2nd year of University - having completed this I had an interview which confirmed my job. To gain the current secondment, I had to go through the LOCOG interview process where I discussed my Consulting experience and my Athletic Union experience whilst at University.
Degree skills:
Analytical and research skills are useful. Presentation skills are key - you need to be able to present to large, senior audiences and anticipate the questions that they might ask.
Extracurricular skills:
Leadership; team work; organisational skills - juggling many extra-curricular activities with a degree.
What I like most
The opportunity to second to 2012 (and the other opportunities offered e.g. being able to transfer internationally), to be able to be part of the only event of its kind that will ever take place in my lifetime in the UK is a truely fantastic experience. Working for a larger organisation and gaining a lot of business experience quickly through Consulting has made these opportunities possible.
What I like least
The commute to work in the mornings...doesn't every Londoner?!
What would I change? I actually wouldn't change anything.
Next steps...
If you like the look of Natalie’s profile, the next steps are down to you! You can send Natalie a message to find out more about their career journey.