Ross

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.