Consulting Analyst Review

Job title: Analyst Daily tasks: data manipulation, content creation for presentations/workshops, solving problems Daily interactions internally: meetings with project team Responsibilities: Complete reflective statements for apprenticeship, client work, practice development, sometimes business development

I have learnt to code in VBA. I had a previous interest in coding but had never been exposed to an actual opportunity to learn it until I joined a project at my firm where I was able to learn the fundamentals very quickly. I completed the CIMA certificate level qualification. I completed a "facilitating meetings effectively" training I completed a strategy training with a SQL element

I have enjoyed a number of the new opportunities that have been presented to me, that I never would have had access to this early if I wasn't on the scheme. I have also enjoyed the new skills I've been able to pick up and I feel like I am prepared for working life 100%. On the other hand I've found that my work-life balance has been incredibly poor at times. Having to balance apprenticeship responsibilities with day-to-day client work (as someone who has been on very busy projects at the time of key apprenticeship deadlines) has been a huge challenge. I think this is somewhat down to the lack understanding/caring about elements of the scheme among people that have managed me, but moreso than that it has been the mismanagement of the apprenticeship side of things, namely the college that we do the scheme through (BPP). Horrible communications, lack of clarity around requirements and last minute changes of mind has made this side of work a terrible and draining experience. Particularly in the last month and a half I have lost many weekends and evenings trying to salvage my work due to unclear or changing requirements in our reflective essays we had to submit in a very quick turnaround.

I feel like I am valued to a varyin degree by different managers. My last manager was highly appreciative of me and acknowledged me frequently for my achievements and for my contributions to the project. Another manager however, showed far less frequent recognition despite long hours I was putting in. I have had external recognition from work I was doing directly with a previous client who valued the quality of my work and asked me personally to help him with tasks he entrusted me with

The execution of our professional qualification was carried out fairly well in my opinion. I felt I was given the tools to pass relatively easily and only having to retake one exam, one time. Other training has been conducted relatively well also, I think our induction was excellent and I have fond memories of it due to it being engaging, useful and a great work environment. I feel like it covered off most of the key skills we needed to start us off, and was lead by a great induction coordinator. Since the induction I have been able to enrol on my own training choices as well as a few mandatory ones that were also useful. We have a support role called a dean, which I think is excellent. They have a detailed knowledge of our scheme and help us get onto the right roles for us, as well as providing general career guidance. The apprenticeship evidence submission and final assessment has been the weak link in the process and has had a negative effect on myself and others. There has been uncertainty, poor/limited communication in areas where good communication is vital, changes in requirements, poor quality of feedback, lack of transparency, and misinformation. I believe most of the blame lies in the college that supports us as previously mentioned. The impact of this has been a poor work-life balance and strain on mental health, exhaustion, stress and so on.

I will copy in an extract from the above: The apprenticeship evidence submission and final assessment has been the weak link in the process and has had a negative effect on myself and others. There has been uncertainty, poor/limited communication in areas where good communication is vital, changes in requirements, poor quality of feedback, lack of transparency, and misinformation. I believe most of the blame lies in the college that supports us as previously mentioned. The impact of this has been a poor work-life balance and strain on mental health, exhaustion, stress and so on. Aside from this I think the tutors varied in the quality of training. It was a mixed bag and we had a couple of good tutors. On the other hand we had one who had gone through a very recent personal incident at home and shouldnt have been back at work as this came through in her volatile emotions and inconsistent teachign

Mentor support is strong from Dean role. HR team is okay, I think the person who leads the interaction with our training provider has her heart in the right place and is constantly trying to do everything she can, but she is too stretched and there isnt enough resource deciated to this. There is a coach role who we are supposed to be able to reach out to, however she knows nothing about the scheme and is too unavailable due to being too busy so I do not bother reaching out to her. The dean(mentor) role is supposed to stick to performance, however due to their knowledge of the scheme and relatability to our issues as apprentices I lean on him for problem resolutions too, however these 2 roles should be segregated.

Meets my costs well. I can cover living, travel and daily costs comfortably.

I do not take advantage of them but I am aware and believe they are fairly accessible, I just choose not to take part of them.

Yes

It is an excellent start to a career. However I would caveat this with the fact that there are still significant snags in the process and let them know they need to be prepared to be dropped in at the deep end, work long hours and balance their work and life very carefully.

Be yourself, if you are acting too differently to how you are prepared to at work, it is hard to say whether you are right for the role. Do your research about the firm and know their values. In group activity do not be too quiet or dominate, find a middle ground