Elise Craig

A couple of months before I started my placement, I met with some of the people I would be working with to find out about the project I’d be involved in. The task was to create an interactive investment game to explain investment management for schools, inductions and university events. That meant I had a month before the placement to prepare and do some online tutorials in the tech skills I’d need. It felt great to be working on such an interesting project and hit the ground running.

Although every week was full of new things to learn, there was a clear structure to keep you on track. At the beginning of the week, I would meet with my mentor to go through my current tasks. I also got to meet people from different teams two to three times a week which helped me understand the business on a broader level and helped us develop the content of the investment game we were building. Then, at the end of the week, I’d have a retrospective with my project supervisors to review the work and plan where to go next.

One of the most challenging things for me was learning to ask for help. My instinct had always been to work things out myself, but I can’t afford to spend a lot of time on a small problem during a big project. Asking for help is encouraged here – it’s how you learn. My team is supportive and always there to help me with anything I don’t understand or to just point me in the right direction. Learning this lesson has made me better at what I do.