New year, new beginnings…
The last week of January 2020 was momentus for many reasons; we saw the start of the year of the Rat, Brexit day went down in history, Burns night was being celebrated in Scotland, and for eight of us it marked the start of our journey on the Clarasys graduate scheme! Making use of our new collaboration skills the eight of us came together to discuss our experiences so far. Here are some of our key take-aways:
Pre joining
One of the best parts of our graduate experience so far has undoubtedly been the effort that Clarasys has put into integrating us into the company! Unlike most companies where the integration begins once you join, with Clarasys, we all had the opportunity to partake in the monthly socials before joining, including a pub quiz and the annual Christmas party. We were also assigned a buddy within the company and had the chance to meet them at socials before we started. It’s great knowing there’s someone within the company who has been there a bit longer, gone through the grad scheme themselves, and can help you out when you’re learning the ropes, as well as meeting others in our intake who attended the socials. Getting to know our own graduate intake and others in the company before joining made the first day considerably less daunting!
Training
The 12-week training course has been incredibly well thought out, giving us the opportunity to learn in a ‘safe’ yet realistic environment, as opposed to having to learn on the job, as is common in many consultancies. The training course is split into three parts – classroom based learning, working on an internal project, and solving a real client problem through a pro bono project.
The first four weeks of classroom based training covered topics that are key to becoming a well-rounded consultant. The sessions were centred around Clarasys’ five key capabilities: Project Management; Change Management; Architecture & Tech; Lead to Cash; and Analysis, Innovation and Design. Being in this environment has been a fantastic way to get to know our peers, in addition to meeting many others around the company. Since finishing this we’ve had the opportunity to put the skills we’ve learned into practice. We’ve spent the past two weeks working on internal projects including looking at our martech stack, options for a replacement ATS (Applicant Tracking System) to enhance our recruitment process, and refinements for our current expenses process. They might not sound exciting, but it’s set us up perfectly for the next stage of training – our six week pro bono projects which kicked off this week!
The sessions have all been highly interactive, which has really helped to ensure we retained key information and understood all the different concepts. Feedback is welcomed after every session to ensure the course is tailored to the requirements of the group, and our trainers have been great at responding to this. It was quickly discovered that cake in the afternoon was a guaranteed way of refocusing our attention!
Another aspect of training was having the opportunity to visit an on-site government project. Members of the Clarasys team gave us a detailed breakdown of what they were currently working on, and we enjoyed quizzing them on what it is like to work within the public sector.
Rebrand
During our first few weeks, Clarasys was undergoing a company re-brand. As a graduate, it was really exciting to have joined at such an exciting time. It was great to see the launch of such an impressive rebrand which, in itself, reflected the very culture and values of the company: the entire process was collaborative and the final result enabled such a celebration of the company’s journey so far and who we are today.
The rebrand was launched on a Thursday and we were welcomed into a newly decorated office with goodie bags and new collateral awaiting us! At the end of the day we all then gathered for the company update to discuss the re-brand and what it meant for us all here, for our clients, and for Clarasys as a company. This was followed by the company’s 9th birthday party where we all went to the OXO Tower to celebrate! The entire day was really exciting and a great opportunity to meet more colleagues and clients.
Final thoughts
To summarise, we can safely say that these have been a really great and exciting six weeks, a wonderful welcoming into the company, and a steep learning curve of new skills! We can’t wait to use our new knowledge as we start on our pro bono projects soon!