Trainee Manager Review

I am part of ENGIE's graduate scheme on the Commercial Development stream. This means that I rotate around mainly Commercial and Business Development roles within the business. My current role is working within commercial at the Olympic Park where I support the commercial manage in commercial matters and support the related contracts (i.e. Ravensbourne University, Loughborough University)

Prior to starting the qualification I had no formal training in management. This course has given me a very good foundation for the basics of management and I will definitely apply these going forwards as a junior manager - if and when I am in a team leader role. It has also contributed to my time management skills, as I have to manage the course around my day to day job.

I do enjoy the programme in that I can see how I will apply the skills and knowledge that are being taught in the future, but I have found it hard to relate the course to my daily job. There were no deadlines for submissions, which made it very difficult to motivate myself to prioritise the work.

The course was very unorganised for my year of the graduate scheme, as there were many changes throughout. As mentioned before, it would be much more motivating to have set deadlines throughout the course when certain aspects of the portfolio should be completed. At the end of the course, I found that there were pieces of work that I should have completed that I didn't know about.

I received support from my direct line manager but I don't feel that the importance of study days was passed down to the placement managers. The placement managers were frustrated with the time lost to training days, and I didn't feel like I could ask for the study days that I needed. I think that the graduates should be allotted an amount of study days for the course and can then formally take them throughout the programme.

I received lots of support from my QA skills coaches, but they lacked the understanding that I needed of the course. There are so many areas that changed and this wasn't communicated well to the skills coaches so they didn't know how to guide me. I was the first person to do the test for my skills coach and she literally had no clue how to do it - what should be a 1 hour job turned into a 3 hour job.

At the moment, and for the next couple of years, I won't be taking on a leadership role in terms of line management so I won't be able to apply the course. I have found it most useful for influencing upwards rather than influencing people that report to me.

There was a CR & Social Committee but this has disbanded. There are no formal sports teams, as I would be very keen to join one, but there are sports teams local to the different contracts. There are a few professional networking events that crop up throughout the year, and I have had the privileged to help organise some of the awards events.

Yes

There are some key benefits of working from ENGIE. The salary is very good for a graduate role, and you have the opportunity to try lots of different areas of the business which gives you an understanding of the company's scope that you wouldn't be bale to get in a standard role.

I would highlight that there are many different arms of the company, and it is important to try and understand the company as a whole. There is a huge disconnect between the energy infrastructure sector of the business and the facilities management focused areas of the business. To understand how they vary will be an impressive trait.