Spring Insight Review

In conclusion I really enjoyed the insight because it offers the opportunity to meet different people from all over the world and it really helped in terms of understanding the company. The core values and the culture was explained and demonstrated throughout the week which makes it clear whether the workplace suited to a specific individual. Moreover, I personally developed a better mindset from the insight week; the mindset of self development and the importance of networking will allow me to benefit not just for working for this company but for my career in general.

The company valued every individual as their future staff and they truly make the candidates feel that they are important. Every talk were beneficial in one way or the other also through the networking session I actually met some senior people where they were more than willing to talk to you about their job and personal perspective on the company.

There were unlimited opportunities to gain guidance from the work shadowing and through Q & A sessions from talks by senior staff. During the shadowing, there were lots of constructive conversions with recent graduates which they could offer their real life experience on how to get to a specific point in their career. Also, the brief run through of their daily jobs makes it clear for me to get a feel of what it is like working in such environment. From the shadowing, it gave me an idea of what department would work like and what I need to do to get there.

After the insight week, I have genuinely changed in terms of my mind-set. I have become more open-minded and understand the importance of self development through completing more tasks from different departments also challenge myself by pushing myself out of the comfort zone. Instead of taking every problem on your own, it is important to understand other people could help you with different skill set and perspective. Although most of the information were obvious but having a senior staff telling me directly about it makes me actually understand the importance of it and stretch myself in order to adapt to what is required.

The sessions were beneficial however there were a lot of repetition on a specific topic and the time management was a bit off standard 'in a good way' because sessions tends to overrun due to the amount of questions we had for the existing staff. Overall, it could have been better if between different presenter had a better idea of what information has already been delivered and sessions stuck to their schedule more accurately.

Everyone were excited and found the insight helpful, only in some occasions where talks were repetitive on a specific topic that the company valued. But the overall atmosphere were really nice because everyone felt they were welcome to the programme and a lot of personal talks were offered throughout the week which was fascinating and fun.

We had many sessions for personal development i.e. presentational skills, interview skills etc.. Also, the talks from senior members were one form of development in a mentality way. They were all beneficial for future career which felt like the company truly invested in us in order to perform optimally for our future.

There were work shadowing throughout the week where existing staff talk about what their daily work is like. Also, the responsibility they held throughout their full time role. They also do tour around the office for us to get a feel of what it is like working in such environment, some workplace focused on innovation and some focused on an opened workspace.

Every presenter gave their view on the values of the company and how the culture framed within the firm. From the insight, it was clear that the culture focused on respect, integrity, service, excellence and stewardship.Also the importance of the culture was clearly explained so every student understood whether the company fitted their personal traits.

The insight offered a lot of variety of career paths available and explained how it is possible to move from one department to another.

There was a one off payment and I could reimburse my travel expense from my university location to London.

The company has their own social application where you can meet all the insight candidates on there, even candidates that are undertaking different departments' insight. Also they offered one social night event lasted 2 hours where drinks and food was available. Senior staff from different departments also attended for networking purposes. I personally met one staff from a department of my preference and kept contact even after the social night.

In general, networking is easy as long as each individual puts in the effort to do it. But the social event could have been better if there were more staff attended as my personal experience shown, there were a lot of occasion where there were too many students talking to one staff.

From the shadowing session, the graduate I talked to has shown me that it is possible to get involved in charitable activities as well as sports team that took place outside of office hours.

Even if the company isn't a personal first choice it is still beneficial to have a try in order to develop and just networking. The benefits from the insight week is beyond expectations and it is always useful to just get a feel of different business culture and environment in order to see where each individual would fit within a company.