Business Development apprentice Review

Business Development Apprentice My team is in charge of supporting sales teams in generating business, by initiating & strengthening partnerships with strategic alliance partners as well as building the relevant Marketing Plan. I will do help my team do this by completing a number of actions: 1. Research – I will identify best practices in the industry through (partnerships, communities...) 2. Database – I will support sales in identifying new relevant prospects 3. Events – I will support & Manage Colt own events or the sponsoring of Industry events 4. Content & Content Platform – I will define content repository structure (i.e. in ShowPad) & promote relevant Content like Joint Value Propositions & Customer References

While working at Colt I have been able to gain a number of different skills which have and will continue to help me in my future, These skills include: 1) Communication - I have been able to develop my communications skills by interacting with people on a daily basis through both oral and written communication. 2) Organisation - I have been able to further develop my organisational skills by learning new ways to organise myself through first hand experience in project management.

I am greatly enjoying my time so far with Colt there are many different reasons for this for this for instance: 1) Travel - My job role allows me to travel to different places and I enjoy it very much, it allows me not to only see different places such as Paris and Madrid but also gain a understanding of how different events are run and managed. 2) Company Culture - Colt's Company culture is amazing, there is always something going on whether it is a presentation in the hub from our customers to teach us more about what our customers do or drinks in the hub to celebrate St Patrick's Day, there is always something to do.

I feel very valued at Colt because I gain constant reorganisation from my manager and my team, this often happens in weekly calls which I have with my team where we all discuss progress and if something is done well for example, an event is managed well then the hard work will be met with a congratulations and a well done from the whole team. Also, Colt run a number of award programmes which reward employees for hard work for instance, the heartbeat award rewards employees with a voucher and an email to all colt employees detailing exactly who won the award and what they did to win the award.

The apprentice programme is structured well, I have a clear defined structure in my team and I know exactly who i report into, this helps when I need help with my objectives as I can go straight to my manager. Also, we do have a number of training sessions which are set up for us for example, we have had four communication and individual presentation training sessions which are very useful as they teach us all about our brand and how we can improve ourselves.

The Training provider we have offer support through webinars and e-mail, to a certain extent this is good as it helps but when you need questions answered straight away it can cause problems as you need to wait for a reply which can sometimes take a while.

I mainly receive support from my manager who helps me learn exactly what I need to do in order to complete tasks, this is extremely useful because it helps me efficiently complete work. My Manager also helps me with personal development, if there is anything I feel like I need to do in order to develop my skills my manager is very happy to help and offer his support.

I live in London therefore my living costs are fairly high, luckily I do not live on my own so rent is not as high as it should be but my travel costs and daily costs, especially getting lunch due to the office being located in Shoreditch are high ( I recommend bringing in Lunch everyday). Fortunately, all of the pubs have happy hour from 5-8pm so socially the location is good and social costs can range depending on how long you decide to stay out with your friends.

My Job has many different opportunities outside of work itself for example, I attend many different events, which help me network and build both the people I know and the knowledge I have of running events, which will help me in the future. Colt also provide a number of different language classes outside of work which are extremely useful if you want to learn a new language for example, I weekly take part in a Rosetta Stone course

Yes

I would recommend Colt to my friends because it is an excellent company to work for that offers a wide range of different opportunities. From the Job I have I have been to Paris and I am scheduled t go to Madrid, an opportunity which is hard to come by through a job. Also, Colt hold excellent social events which really help you network and get to know people for example, Colt have held drinks for both St.Patrick's Day and Chinese New Year, both of these events have helped me meet new people at Colt and learn more about the business itself.

My Main tip for anyone applying for Colt would be to be yourself, Colt like people who have their own identity and are hard working so if you just work hard and show who you are in the interview process you will be fine. Also, I would recommended reading up on Colt a little bit before applying so that you gain a basic knowledge on what Colt are.