My experience in the Business world
I’d like to talk you through my year placement within the industry and what my daily tasks consisted of.
When I first began my degree I got showered with questions: why English, what will you go into, how will this help you? But the truth is, this subject is power. It has the ability to open up so many doors, to write that path for me. This is why when the opportunity arose to endure a yearlong placement, I didn’t limit my search. I believed that by expanding my knowledge I could not only build on the strengths I already knew but challenge those qualities I had not yet practised. After an interview at Nationwide headquarters, I knew that this was the business which would help in developing that progress. I want to show you how this industry did this and what my average day led to!
For those that don’t know, I live in the middle of nowhere (practically a field), and so the commute to work every day was a long one. I would be up at 6am every morning in order to drive to the train station, where I would be on board for over an hour, to then walk 20 minutes into the office. I found myself picking up overtime a lot too in order to help with the workload, the longer hours meant that I wouldn’t be getting home until 9pm on some nights. But the experience was all too worth it!
A considerable portion of my day was spent attending meetings. I would come into the office, grab a much-needed coffee (sometimes a fry up to help gain that added energy, or so I told myself!) and head upstairs. My team was based on the fifth floor, Nationwide believe in flexible hours so from nine till eleven we would first get on and work towards our targets. I was able to further build on my written and communication skills throughout this placement. I would start off by going through my mail I had received the evening before. Constructing emails and letters for different client base: solicitors, consumers, brokers and financial advisors. After 11am, my managers would call a morning meeting- this was to go over any new company policies that had come into play and raise our moral for the day. Once a month these meetings would turn into floor conferences for all members of The Mortgage Works (this was a subsidiary to the business, where our team worked). In these the management team would hand out awards for previous work. I was grateful enough to receive several of these by my fellow team for my:
‘Work ethic, taking on large challenging workloads and becoming a crucial team player.’
This aided my confidence professionally and mentally. I began to notice myself take on that authoritative role. In turn, nominating awards myself, building on employee engagement by motivating and raising morale- driving that high performance for our team!
After undergoing much training for the first month (including an open book written exam, quality test, and route to competency assessment) I was quite literally set free. It was terrifyingly thrilling! The authority and responsibility given was something I had never experienced before. I would learn to apply internal systems to review documentation supplied by clients. Whilst examining valuation reports, tenancy agreements and assessing other proofs to ensure both the said parties and property were acceptable to loan financially. Each case was different. I had to use my skills I’d learnt from university to research awareness of new legal agreements and laws which could impact the company’s marketing. All while studying new methods I had not yet known. No day was ever the same. I had to demonstrate resilience working under high pressure, meeting targets in an ever-changing business. As each case was picked up, I would study the reports and decide on the outcome. The pressure would only increase and yet as the day would go on, I found myself priding on the outcome of what I had achieved.
Coming towards 4pm we would re-join for a second meeting. In these I began to learn to be confident in the discussions, I would bring forth ideas and suggestions on issues I had noticed or tasks which needed further attention. This was beneficial as it taught me to build on that professional working relationship with my clients by referring back correct and useful knowledge. Although the pace of the business and day was very quick, I still understood the importance of showing my personality. One particular member of the team who shared my desk has since become one of my closest friends. However, when we joined the company together, they struggled with their language barrier and would occasionally ask for help on calls to the clients. Utilising what I have learnt from my degree I was able to assist them in any way needed, with vocabulary or simply aiding their confidence.
Though my day showed many positives, there were some tough aspects to my time on placement. Especially with the recent pandemic throwing a huge spanner in the works! I was given a personal laptop to work from home until what would be the end of my time at Nationwide. This meant that not only did I struggle without the full support of my seniors and drastic changes to my working environment. But also meant that I was unable to say a proper goodbye to my team. I did however see many of their lovely faces, pets and all, on our daily Microsoft team meetings.
I think if anything the year taught me about adaptability, confidence in strong decision making, and the importance of becoming a part of a hard-working team. I hope you enjoyed reading my post as much as I enjoyed my year within the business!
