Hi, it has been a while since I last posted so a lot has happened, but I'll try and get all the important bits into this post!
I've recently just completed a really good training course on advanced communications. It was very unusual because you get to find out how well others think you communicate. Months in advance of the training I sent questionnaires to various colleagues, mainly in my team, and they return them to the trainer direct. The results certainly were an eye opener to the graduates; individually we got really useful feedback on what we are doing well, what we should start to do and what we should stop doing! All the soft skill courses we attend are run by a provider specific to my graduate programme. This is a great feature as you attend the courses with your graduate peers each time, and there is continuity in trainers. This really does help build up a good relationship amongst everyone. In a couple of weeks I'm off to Halifax for an advanced presentation course. We did the basic course last year, with this one building upon it. Part of it involves someone filming you present and then you watching it back – you know what people say about the sound of their own voice!!
Placement wise I am still in Payment Services. I was due to leave this area but they are in the process of kicking off a big programme of lean work. I've always had an interest in process improvement so I've moved into this role working along side the programme manager. It's at an early stage, but in the coming months it looks as though it will be all go! I see the freedom to be able to move around and try new things as the key benefit of the graduate programme. If you don't like a role and it's not for you, then you move on and try something new!
Got to go, but I will post again soon.
This blog is now archived. View blogs for the HBOS Graduate Schemes 2009
Friday 22 February 2008
Thursday 29 November 2007
As a reminder the application deadline for the HBOS Graduate programmes is at the end of December. So if anyone has any questions please feel free to make use of the blogs. If you are interested in HBOS it does no harm to apply. We would love to hear from you!
Next week I will be visiting Glasgow Caledonian University to run a presentation about HBOS, the programmes they offer and the recruitment process. Several other grads on my programme are involved in this and it is typically something you would get involved in as a graduate. Recently we have had a structural change within the graduate programme and this is taking a bit of time to get used to! However in the pipeline is our December Forum where the Group Management graduates will go offsite for a couple of days and discuss/plan what lies ahead for us in 2008. This is a key benefit to the programme as the graduates’ views are very much appreciated and they are generally used to structure the direction we will take in the future.
Placement wise the effects of a large restructure in the business are still being felt. I've found it difficult to adjust when it is not entirely clear who is responsible for what. I guess we are still experiencing the bedding in period and things will eventually settle down. However I suspect further change will occur and I've learnt that this is something you have to deal with as quickly as possible! However I'm still working full steam ahead with my deployment plans for SharePoint within my team. These plans and an initial demo version will keep me busy right up until Christmas.
Talking of Christmas it has come to that time of year again – Christmas party time!! The benefit of being a graduate is that you generally get to attend more than one party – placement team party, graduate party and wider functional area party!! Roll on the parties – these are a great opportunity to relax and meet people from within the organisation which you wouldn't normally speak to on a daily basis.
Next week I will be visiting Glasgow Caledonian University to run a presentation about HBOS, the programmes they offer and the recruitment process. Several other grads on my programme are involved in this and it is typically something you would get involved in as a graduate. Recently we have had a structural change within the graduate programme and this is taking a bit of time to get used to! However in the pipeline is our December Forum where the Group Management graduates will go offsite for a couple of days and discuss/plan what lies ahead for us in 2008. This is a key benefit to the programme as the graduates’ views are very much appreciated and they are generally used to structure the direction we will take in the future.
Placement wise the effects of a large restructure in the business are still being felt. I've found it difficult to adjust when it is not entirely clear who is responsible for what. I guess we are still experiencing the bedding in period and things will eventually settle down. However I suspect further change will occur and I've learnt that this is something you have to deal with as quickly as possible! However I'm still working full steam ahead with my deployment plans for SharePoint within my team. These plans and an initial demo version will keep me busy right up until Christmas.
Talking of Christmas it has come to that time of year again – Christmas party time!! The benefit of being a graduate is that you generally get to attend more than one party – placement team party, graduate party and wider functional area party!! Roll on the parties – these are a great opportunity to relax and meet people from within the organisation which you wouldn't normally speak to on a daily basis.
Friday 26 October 2007
An unusual week this week with quite a lot of graduate activity happening. On Wednesday I attended the Scottish Graduate Careers Fair at the SECC in Glasgow. This involved manning the HBOS stand with a number of other graduates and talking to students interested in a graduate career. It was great fun and I really enjoyed talking to students who had a keen interest in HBOS. It was interesting the number of people I spoke to who had already looked up this website, which hopefully shows it is having an impact. The HBOS stand itself seemed popular; we even had someone from another employers stand asking about opportunities as she was very interested!
The following day on the Thursday I was through in Edinburgh doing some volunteering work with the other graduates on my programme. We were tasked to paint corridors inside a school which was in need of some TLC. This was great as we were doing something good for the community. HBOS paid for all the supplies and the graduates were the free labour. You see lots of teams doing this type of volunteering work, and it is something that is promoted around HBOS. It was a good team building day and we were all happy with the results, although I don't think any of us should give up our day jobs to become painters – they are the professionals in that department.
Placement wise I'm continuing to work on the financial process piece of work which has seen me attend a number of workshops to present the overall financial process flow which I had documented. Next steps on this are to have a further workshop using a revised version of the process flow as the driver to the meeting. It's good though to see that progress is being made.
I'm also getting involved in planning the deployment of Microsoft SharePoint for my project based team. We are looking to use the tool as a collaboration tool kit for the entire team. It's just at an early stage so I'll keep you up to date with this in the future.
The following day on the Thursday I was through in Edinburgh doing some volunteering work with the other graduates on my programme. We were tasked to paint corridors inside a school which was in need of some TLC. This was great as we were doing something good for the community. HBOS paid for all the supplies and the graduates were the free labour. You see lots of teams doing this type of volunteering work, and it is something that is promoted around HBOS. It was a good team building day and we were all happy with the results, although I don't think any of us should give up our day jobs to become painters – they are the professionals in that department.
Placement wise I'm continuing to work on the financial process piece of work which has seen me attend a number of workshops to present the overall financial process flow which I had documented. Next steps on this are to have a further workshop using a revised version of the process flow as the driver to the meeting. It's good though to see that progress is being made.
I'm also getting involved in planning the deployment of Microsoft SharePoint for my project based team. We are looking to use the tool as a collaboration tool kit for the entire team. It's just at an early stage so I'll keep you up to date with this in the future.
Thursday 4 October 2007
Steep learning curve
The last couple of weeks have seen the introduction of the latest graduates to the graduate community across Group. This is an exciting time for the new guys, with all the current grads coming together to give them a warm welcome. I'm in the very fortunate position of being a 'buddy' to one of them, and so spent a fair amount of time last week ensuring that they were settling in ok, and helping solve any problems/queries that they had. Luckily there were no major issues, but I put this down to good planning! I think the 'buddy' relationship is great, I'm more than happy to help new graduates into the business by passing on the knowledge and experience I have acquired over the last 12 months. I also see this as a 2 way relationship so I'm looking forward to what we both get out of it in the months ahead.
On a placement front my team has recently completed a restructure. There aren't many new faces, but this is an exciting time as we have the opportunity to shape the team moving forward. This is something that is expected of graduates, we should all be full of 'fresh' ideas – a new way of thinking. So as the team begins to gel I'll be taking opportunities to impose my own ideas on the team before moving into my next placement!
My placement sits within the Programme Office for the payment services project team. Basically this project team are responsible for running all major projects affecting payment systems across HBOS. Recently I've been getting heavily involved in a piece of work designed to review certain aspects of the financial reporting process for all our projects. This is a challenging world to come to terms with due to the number of parties involved, and the wealth of financial data that exists. Having not come from a financial background hasn't helped my uptake of process but I joined this team to stretch myself to learn something radically new. I was keen to learn how projects are run and the processes that surround them, and I can tell you I'm certainly doing that! Over the next couple of weeks I will be attending a number of meetings to map the process from all the parties involved – getting to understand their piece of the pie!
On a lighter note I've just had word that the Group Graduates will be doing some charity work over the October school holidays. We will be working together to do some DIY at a local school in Edinburgh. I think they are looking for a new quiet zone for the pupils, so we will be working along side the school to help deliver this. I'm really looking forward to this as it will be a great team building exercise, and it's nice to deliver something for the community!
On a placement front my team has recently completed a restructure. There aren't many new faces, but this is an exciting time as we have the opportunity to shape the team moving forward. This is something that is expected of graduates, we should all be full of 'fresh' ideas – a new way of thinking. So as the team begins to gel I'll be taking opportunities to impose my own ideas on the team before moving into my next placement!
My placement sits within the Programme Office for the payment services project team. Basically this project team are responsible for running all major projects affecting payment systems across HBOS. Recently I've been getting heavily involved in a piece of work designed to review certain aspects of the financial reporting process for all our projects. This is a challenging world to come to terms with due to the number of parties involved, and the wealth of financial data that exists. Having not come from a financial background hasn't helped my uptake of process but I joined this team to stretch myself to learn something radically new. I was keen to learn how projects are run and the processes that surround them, and I can tell you I'm certainly doing that! Over the next couple of weeks I will be attending a number of meetings to map the process from all the parties involved – getting to understand their piece of the pie!
On a lighter note I've just had word that the Group Graduates will be doing some charity work over the October school holidays. We will be working together to do some DIY at a local school in Edinburgh. I think they are looking for a new quiet zone for the pupils, so we will be working along side the school to help deliver this. I'm really looking forward to this as it will be a great team building exercise, and it's nice to deliver something for the community!
Thursday 20 September 2007
Time standing still
Another week, another blog!
One thing I have noticed since joining HBOS last year is that time does not stand still. You are constantly busy and being challenged. It is exactly a year to the day that I join the company, but I can't believe it has been that long. I believe this to be a good thing; I really enjoy the variety and challenge. I can never see a time where there wont be a challenge waiting for you inside HBOS!
For the last 2 weeks I've been on holiday, so not much to mention work wise. The time off was a great way to relax and recharge my batteries. On returning to work this week I attended a 2 day training course on 'Business Simulation'. This was with 12 other of the Group Service's graduates in my intake year. Having just completed my first year on the programme the course was designed to allow us to use the skills we have developed in a 'cold' environment, where we were split into teams and asked to prepare a bid to become the new management of a shopping centre. It was a lot of fun, but we were put under severe pressure that we had no option but to perform. In the end my teams bid came out on top - which was a nice way to finish the training! I appreciate that as graduates we get to go on these types of training course. This is definitely a big positive of being on a graduate programme.
The new graduates joining my program start later this week. This will be an important time for the graduate community as we introduce new members. I'm lined up to give presentations as part of their induction. I have until Friday to ensure my presentations are looking good; better get back to the drawing board…
One thing I have noticed since joining HBOS last year is that time does not stand still. You are constantly busy and being challenged. It is exactly a year to the day that I join the company, but I can't believe it has been that long. I believe this to be a good thing; I really enjoy the variety and challenge. I can never see a time where there wont be a challenge waiting for you inside HBOS!
For the last 2 weeks I've been on holiday, so not much to mention work wise. The time off was a great way to relax and recharge my batteries. On returning to work this week I attended a 2 day training course on 'Business Simulation'. This was with 12 other of the Group Service's graduates in my intake year. Having just completed my first year on the programme the course was designed to allow us to use the skills we have developed in a 'cold' environment, where we were split into teams and asked to prepare a bid to become the new management of a shopping centre. It was a lot of fun, but we were put under severe pressure that we had no option but to perform. In the end my teams bid came out on top - which was a nice way to finish the training! I appreciate that as graduates we get to go on these types of training course. This is definitely a big positive of being on a graduate programme.
The new graduates joining my program start later this week. This will be an important time for the graduate community as we introduce new members. I'm lined up to give presentations as part of their induction. I have until Friday to ensure my presentations are looking good; better get back to the drawing board…
Wednesday 22 August 2007
Hi!
Welcome to my first every blog entry. When I heard about this blog idea I thought it would be fun to get involved; then I began to think what exactly was I going to talk about!? I decided that I would use my first attempt to take a little time to introduce myself.
My name is Ross and I have been an HBOS Graduate for almost a year now, joining in September 2006. Before this I studied Software Engineering at university. I joined an area within the company called Group Services which is made up of over 4,500 people. In short, Group Services sit at the core of the HBOS Group and provide invaluable services and support to the rest of HBOS, covering areas such as IT, Procurement, Payment Services, as well as many others.
Since joining I have had the pleasure of working within 3 very different teams. I first joined the Group Technology Communications team, which was a great place to get a helicopter view of what goes on across Group Technology and Group Services. Before I confuse you, let me explain that Group Technology is part of Group Services, and as you can probably guess from the name their job centres around the technology for the bank. Coming from a software background I didn't expect to be placed in such a team, but quickly realised that you can learn a lot very quickly from working in a team that is responsible for the communications strategy for over 1,500 people!
Five months later I stayed in Group Technology but moved into a team called Service Continuity. This team where responsible for ensuring IT recoverability for the majority of the business in the event of a disaster. I really enjoyed this placement as I was back in a technological environment, and it was sort of exciting making and testing plans for when a disaster might strike!
Currently I'm now in my third placement in a completely different area, working in a Business Change team in the Payments arena. The team is very project management oriented, and I was keen to learn more about the payments industry and how large scale projects are run, and this placement gave me the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.
That was just a very brief overview of what I've been up to in my short time with HBOS. However in this very short space of time I have been given the opportunity to move around and experience three different areas. I really like this aspect of the graduate programme as it allows you to quickly build up you knowledge of the company, and your contacts, which are both key in this business. You are also given real responsibility from day 1, the graduates are very highly thought of within Group services and this is reflected in the type of work you get involved in.
In future blogs I'll give you examples of the type of work I'm currently involved in, and have been involved in the past. However it is Friday afternoon and the weekend has arrived! I hope my first blog hasn't been too taxing on you, and I look forward to writing another blog for you very soon.
Thanks for reading,
Ross
Welcome to my first every blog entry. When I heard about this blog idea I thought it would be fun to get involved; then I began to think what exactly was I going to talk about!? I decided that I would use my first attempt to take a little time to introduce myself.
My name is Ross and I have been an HBOS Graduate for almost a year now, joining in September 2006. Before this I studied Software Engineering at university. I joined an area within the company called Group Services which is made up of over 4,500 people. In short, Group Services sit at the core of the HBOS Group and provide invaluable services and support to the rest of HBOS, covering areas such as IT, Procurement, Payment Services, as well as many others.
Since joining I have had the pleasure of working within 3 very different teams. I first joined the Group Technology Communications team, which was a great place to get a helicopter view of what goes on across Group Technology and Group Services. Before I confuse you, let me explain that Group Technology is part of Group Services, and as you can probably guess from the name their job centres around the technology for the bank. Coming from a software background I didn't expect to be placed in such a team, but quickly realised that you can learn a lot very quickly from working in a team that is responsible for the communications strategy for over 1,500 people!
Five months later I stayed in Group Technology but moved into a team called Service Continuity. This team where responsible for ensuring IT recoverability for the majority of the business in the event of a disaster. I really enjoyed this placement as I was back in a technological environment, and it was sort of exciting making and testing plans for when a disaster might strike!
Currently I'm now in my third placement in a completely different area, working in a Business Change team in the Payments arena. The team is very project management oriented, and I was keen to learn more about the payments industry and how large scale projects are run, and this placement gave me the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.
That was just a very brief overview of what I've been up to in my short time with HBOS. However in this very short space of time I have been given the opportunity to move around and experience three different areas. I really like this aspect of the graduate programme as it allows you to quickly build up you knowledge of the company, and your contacts, which are both key in this business. You are also given real responsibility from day 1, the graduates are very highly thought of within Group services and this is reflected in the type of work you get involved in.
In future blogs I'll give you examples of the type of work I'm currently involved in, and have been involved in the past. However it is Friday afternoon and the weekend has arrived! I hope my first blog hasn't been too taxing on you, and I look forward to writing another blog for you very soon.
Thanks for reading,
Ross
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