I'm a graduate at one of the most successful companies in the world ama

[TheUnderestimatedGrad]

I'm coming to the end of my grad program at a very successful company. Happy to dispel myths about working in technology, especially early career pathways.

It’s like your talking a foreign language.
How on earth do you even start to get a career in this?

A new graduate finds there is no problem with ageism at their company 🤔

Why did I choose underestmiated?

I chose that because when I was at uni I struggled very much and thought I'd come out with a 2.2.

Instead I managed to get a 1st. None of my cohort thought I'd make it and it was a running joke I was the token female.

I also managed to land a top grad scheme and so far have been offered every job that I've gone to interview for.

I also like choosing slightly ironic usernames.

How much do you earn

How do you get a career in this?

So technical roles you need a stem degree for entry level, unless you join as an apprentice. Later career you don't necessarily need a degree but you need hands on experience.

Non/low technical roles often require degree level experience. About 80% of my intake had humanities/business management degrees and sit in more business and sales roles. The company's operations in the UK are mostly business, internal administration roles and sales. You just nesd to have a passion for technology and believe in the company's vision. if you need to be some what technical they train you up. There are very few hands on coding roles, those of are work as consultants or support engineers.

Do you use TensorFlow at work?

YellowBlobs, funnily enough agism works both ways - as an early in career I am not sidelined for my inexperience and my company has the best work culture I could wish for. Likewise many of my colleagues are incredibly passionate about the company and some of those are more towards their end of career. Compared to the company I interned at, it is incredibly diverse and inclusive.

GOODORBAD

My base salary is just shy of £40,000. With added benefits the package is worth £55000.

Most grads are between 21 and 30

So not particularly diverse and inclusive.

Not including bonus which can be up to an extra 60%

So not particularly diverse and inclusive.

Yeah when I finally graduate from my part time BSc I'll be 37 :(

Bombardier, that's the people on the early career grad scheme ie within 1 year of graduating and less than 5 years in the work place. There's not many that fit the purpose of a grad scheme above 30. The company has different integration schemes for people returning to work and there is an MBA scheme for later in career joiners with more experience.

TimeWoundsAllHeals there's no reason you couldn't apply if you have a 2.1 or 1st in your degree and little work place experience. There's no point someone who has worked in a professional environment for several years joining on a grad scheme because it'll be too slow paced ramping up. I found it a bit slow because I have 2 years experience in a professional working environment and some of the more soft skills training was a bit wasted on me because I had got more experience in the work place already than it was pitched for.

How many parents work part time there and are part time roles advertised?

I have no workplace experience at all besides shop work.

Honestly I think I might be best accepting I am too weird to work and just having fun with my life - husband is perfectly happy to support me and everything. But I do feel super unfulfilled.

Plus I don't find most business case problems that exciting if I'm honest. They seem a lot of the time to revolve around selling people things they don't want or need or selling things to companies who spend their time selling things to people who don't want or need them.

If I ever did work I'd want to feel like I was a net positive to society and since I can afford to be picky it rules out a lot of things (even though it probably means I will never get a job).

In the long run if I turn out to be too feckless to work I think I might try and formulate a quantum algorithm before all the low hanging fruit gets picked but the clock is ticking on that one too and the reality is that my maths is not up to scratch yet.

AornisHades, in my team everyone is on full time contracts. However, this is because we have a culture of working from home and flexible working, two onsite nurseries and other child care benefits. The new mum in my team has been ramped up over the past 3 months, and her targets have been lowered for the financial year to account for the ramp up. She has an arrangement to exclusively work from home because of her young baby and she just fits her hours in around her baby and when her partner is at home. Other parents mostly work from home and often stop working between 3pm and 6pm to look after kids after school and then work in the evening. As long as your request is reasonable then they try to be as accommodating as possible. I do know of people on part time contracts but I don't know if they're advertised.

Why wouldn’t you touch google?

How are you defining "one of the most successful companies in the world"?

I've worked for massive global companies and tiny family businesses. Size and profit are no guarantee that the company is actually successful at what they do.

I've been working in tech for 25 years so no need to dispel any myths for me, ta all the same.

As you were

TimeWoundsAllHeals, the beautiful thing about tech is you could just freelance. If you want to do quantum computing why not stay on at uni and get your masters or PhD, then the research posts at tech companies become available.

RiddleyW, because I don't believe in the company's ethics or business model.

I’m rather with you on the ethics I think - their business model seems solid to me. I’ve been asked to interview there but thinking I’ll turn the interview down.

NetballHoop, my company not only turn a huge profit and are truly global, they are really passionate about what they do. They have moved from hard sell to completely customer focused and their employees and customers for the most part truly love the company. They are also diverse enough across markets that they are comfortably here to stay, with an innovation mindset to prevent them from falling down by ending up behind competitors in their field. They're also one of the few that don't mask what they are, unlike some companies that are just advertising agencies in disguise.

Sorry meant to add that all the candidates I can think of for your company have similarly shady ethics.

TimeWoundsAllHeals, the beautiful thing about tech is you could just freelance. If you want to do quantum computing why not stay on at uni and get your masters or PhD, then the research posts at tech companies become available.

Freelance what though? Without significant industry experience it's hard to get into genuinely interesting and valuable work.

As for staying on at Uni. I didn't do well enough in my first degree (got a 2.2 in Computer Science because basically I didn't do my final year project, just procrastinated it to the last possible couple of hours and then obviously didn't have time to do much). I'm starting a new degree now in Maths and Statistics but it will be 6 years before I finish at BEST (I also have 2 kids to watch and no childcare). By then a lot will have moved on including me - I'm very fickle.

I don't necessarily want to do quantum computing - its something I have an interest in but not the only thing. I just think that it's something where there's a lot of low hanging fruit left for people who can get past the barrier to entry in terms of knowledge which means there are lots of discoveries to be made shortly, and it doesn't matter who makes those discoveries - if I can get to the point mathematically where I can jump the barrier to entry I could be one of them. I think it's doable but hard and I am in a race with a lot of people who are more disciplined than me and who don't have two young kids so who knows.

My primary interest is stochastic modelling tbh.