Rating

6.8/10
  • 1. Please give an overview of your role and what this involves on a day-to-day basis:
  • My role as a PMO (Project Management Office) Analyst provides full support to the Program/Project Managers in their role of Program/Project Delivery. There are many fundamentals that PMO cover and the tasks that we do vary such as Change Management, Risk Management, Quality Management, Project Financials, KPI (Key Performance Indicator) and Reporting, and Project Planning and Controlling. PMO aims to industrialize the process of piloting projects; implements and manages effective tools and methodologies; defines and develops steering indicators; and monitors operational project planning management, budget control, reporting and risk monitoring. Some of the daily tasks and responsibilities that PMO provides includes project schedules, cost and finance information to aid the Program/Project control, and monitoring. PMO work alongside the financial month cycle where there are specific deadlines to be hit each month in order to be prepared for M-Review (monthly review). As a PMO, I work closely with key stakeholders such as Accountants and Finance, Project Managers, Delivery Leads, Service Delivery Leads and the Head of the Business Area and the Delivery Manager. Activities throughout the month include facilitating several meetings with these key stakeholders from forecasting meetings to ensure the people in our business unit have work assigned to them to RAID (Risks, Assumptions, Issues and Dependencies) meetings to review the open RAID items and ensure that they are compliant and are up to date. These activities can include PMO to run any specific reports, send out the invites, drive the meetings and conversations, capture minutes or an output, and monitor of actions from the meetings.

    8/10

  • 2. Have you learnt any new skills or developed existing skills?
  • Throughout my time in Capgemini I have developed existing skills such as my confidence skills; internally and externally. By that I mean, my confidence in myself and the work that I do has increased and also my perception of being confident has improved. When I first joined my current team when there were three PMO analysts within my area, I was very shy and felt very uncomfortable having to speak in any form of meeting, whereas now I am the only analyst in my area and I have pushed myself out of my comfort zone and now it doesn't phase me as much as I do it so regularly. I drive and facilitate meetings as part of my role and don't often have to present a PowerPoint for example. Although I don't present like this often, I do feel as though I have developed my presentation skills as I now feel more comfortable with my team and working with management and key stakeholders. Since joining Capgemini, I have also learnt new skills - or perhaps skills that I didn't even know I had, such as my professionalism; being professional with internal and external clients. By joining a company like Capgemini straight after college, you tend to pick up these kind of skills automatically as you realise you have to be very mature and professional when working in a team and when interacting with customers. I have also developed my social skills in terms of interacting with clients, building of colleague relationships and also gaining new friends.

    8/10

  • 3. To what extent do you enjoy your programme?
  • I first joined the company as an apprentice in Business Administration which lasted a year. I then moved around with different roles within the company to learn more about the company and different area's ways of working, and of course to gain new skills. After working at the company for about 5 years, I thought it was about time for a new challenge, so I did some research on the different apprenticeships available in Capgemini and came across a Degree Apprenticeships. I was anxious at first as all of the GAP students I had interacted with were doing technical apprenticeships so I was unsure if this suited my role. However, I then came across a new Degree Apprenticeship named 'Business Management and Leadership' which is more aimed at those who work closely with management teams and who are not as technical, such as PMO - so this really suited me in my role! I managed to get approval from my manager and was able to get onto the appreniceship. I am now almost at the end of my 2nd year at University. Although there has been ups and downs as there have been learning curves with the Degree Apprenticeship as they have been working out what works and what doesn't work as it is a new Degree Apprenticeship and my cohort is the second lot of students to start the programme.

    7/10

  • 4. How well organised/structured is your programme?
  • As I am in the 2nd cohort of testing out this new Degree Programme, there have been many curve balls to try and find the right balance and to help structure the programme so that it's more reasonable. Unfortunately, this has meant that the structure and the organisational of it has been a little poor on my cohort, however, my cohort and the year above us has been providing lots of feedback regarding this to Capgemini and the University and as a result there have been many proposed changes in place so that those students starting from Sep 2019 onwards and those currently on the degree below us will have these amended changes as part of their programme. So although we have had to deal with the pain of the structure, it has helped benefit for those who will be joining the apprenticeship and it should be more achievable, more flexible and more reasonable. That being said, these changes may also be reflected in my final year on the apprenticeship, although the main elements that my cohort were struggling with has been the first two years, so i'm unsure how much of these changes we will benefit from.

    5/10

  • 5. How much support do you receive from your employer?
  • I feel very supported by Capgemini and the management team around me. They understand how difficult it is to do a degree alongside a full time job and as such there hasn't really been any issues with me taking study leave as they acknowledge how important my degree is. By law, we are also entitled to 20% on the job training which can vary from training and learning new skills for my role to time spent looking at BlackBoard or assignments when I have the odd spare time now and then.

    8/10

  • 6. How much support do you receive from your training provider when working towards your qualifications?
  • There is support from the degree apprenticeship lecturers but I've noticed that it depends on what module you are doing. Some lecturers are very laid back and just leave you to it whereas others give you strict study guidelines to get the best out of you. For me personally I like a bit of a mixture because it's very easy to fall behind on study work when you work a full time job and have responsibilities at home and a social life etc. but overall all of the lecturers I have met so far have been nice and understand that you may not be able to attend every single webinar so are happy for you to catch up later by watching the recorded webinar. One thing I would point out with some of the lecturers is that some like to be contacted directly through e-mail whereas others just like for you to use the discussion boards on BlackBoard. I find this sometimes hard as you don't always want to write everything on the discussion board and sometimes want to speak to the lecturer directly - but this all depends on the lecturers style and way of working.

    6/10

  • 7. How well do you feel that your qualification (through your training provider) helps you to perform better in your role?
  • I wouldn't say that it has specifically improved on my role in general, however there are elements from the degree that I have used in my job. Some of the modules that I have been learning may help me in the future such as Accounting and Finance as I do some elements of these in my job, however what I have learnt/am learning is completely different to how we work in Capgemini so it's a bit difficult to transfer the skills across. There are some aspects that I have taken on in my role such as being more confident in my presence, having more challenging conversations, learning more about how to set creative and SMART goals. I'm currently looking at enterprise, Innovation and new technology where we are looking at how creative and innovative we are personally and where we then compare it to our own organisations which I'm finding interesting as it's made me realise that I'm not as creative as I thought and I could improve in this area.

    7/10

  • 8. Are there extra-curricular activities to get involved in at your work? (For example, any social activities, sports teams, or even professional networking events.)
  • I believe there are, I do get the odd e-mail about extra work or extra classes that you can get involved in. However, as I'm located in Telford and as i'm doing a part time degree, I feel that this isn't always welcome to me and I don't feel that I can take part. Mainly this is difficult as it's either at an awkward time but mostly due to the location as I find it difficult to get to Birmingham straight after work due to personal responsibilities. Sometimes this makes me feel that I'm not a "proper" student as such as I'm not living on campus and so it's not as easy to go to these classes which is a shame but at the same time I enjoy the flexibility of being able to live at home and work remotely to attend the webinars and study etc.

    5/10

  • 9a. Would you recommend Capgemini to a friend?
  • Yes


  • 9b. Why?
  • Capgemini is a great company to work for. You do get support throughout your career but you essentially drive your own career and as such are responsible for how well you do and how fast you want to accelerate. This is dependent on your own style and way of working though, some people want to go from an O2 to an O5 in the space of 2/3 years whereas others want to go at their own pace which could take 4/5 years. Capgemini gives you lots of support and are very flexible in the sense that they understand that we have a life outside of our jobs and do their best to work around any problems we have, for example if you have a child and need to be more flexible, you could change your working hours or become part-time (depending on your area and approval). There are also lots of benefits that you can get with the company such as health care, insurance, shopping vouchers etc. It's a great place where you can learn new skills and develop in various areas as you can decide where you want to go.


  • 10. What tips or advice would you give to others applying to Capgemini?
  • Be bold and push yourself out of your comfort zone. Learn as much as you can and question something if you don't understand. It's ok to not know everything as we all started off somewhere but also learn from others as they might know something you don't. Someone once told me "You don't know what you don't know" which has always stuck with me, so make sure you keep learning new things and take the opportunities that are thrown your way - or go out and find your own! Something that I am learning overtime though is that having a desk job you also need to look after yourself - physically and mentally... so make sure you keep yourself well and healthy by taking regular breaks!


Details

Degree Apprenticeship

Accounting, Finance

Telford

May 2019


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