Do you work with people on grad schemes?

[viknow]

At the beginning of last year, I started a grad scheme in finance. It was made clear to me that they expect grads to see things with a new perspective and make changes where necessary.

After being in my role for a while I've developed the understanding and confidence to challenge certain practices. BUT I'm constantly being shut down or told so and so is working on that. It's really disheartening and it makes me feel incompetent/useless.

It's really bringing me down (also adjusting to living up north doesn't help)

I would love to hear from those who work with grads on their teams - do they really improve the way you work? Law of diminishing returns comes to mind.

From a grad:

• look at the people hired off the scheme. What responsibilities do they have, what are their tasks? You want to use your time to learn how to do that stuff and so it well.do not spend time modelling yourself on much more senior people/business leaders, it's not relevant when you are only a year or two into the job
• do anything asked of you. Admin is not beneath you, you are inexperienced and thus can't do much yet.
• ask questions, and take notes so you know what's been said. Have a go at things but don't be afraid to seek clarification
• generally speaking, the things you will be given to do independently will be basic/simple. Make it your mission to do these tasks perfectly.
• do anything you can to make everyone else's life easier.
• don't try to skip stages/fastrack. For most people there is simply no substitute for experience/time served.

I manage around 150 engineers and currently have 8 grads. I have to be honest and say what you've been told to do in terms of seeing new perspectives and making changes sounds a bit like "grad scheme waffle".

You ask Can I ask what do you like to see from a grad?
What I really like to see is people fitting well into teams, doing actual productive work, asking questions where necessary and delivering good quality work on time. If I wanted to see potential changes I'd be picking the right people who are open with a lot of experience and who understand what the impact of those suggestions are, not a grad.

It was made clear to me that they expect grads to see things with a new perspective and make changes where necessary.

Honestly, they don’t. It’s just stuff they say on the grad scheme application portal and the million interviews etc. They just want to employ a load of grads and hope that a decent percentage of them end up fitting in and staying for a while.
The grad scheme is just a fancy name for getting a job.

I used to look after Grads in a mahoosive corporate.Your post reads like you identified areas with no Manager input but they were already in hand? That would never happen where I worked. You'd gave a sit down with the Director and /or Manager & be given a clear remit or job spec and goals for tasks not already underway. Have you had this? If not I'd ask your line Manager & if you get nowhere, speak to HR. .

I've been a graduate trainee and have worked with/managed graduates for quite a few years. All the trainees were told during recruitment/induction how much their degrees/enthusiasm etc are valued and that they bring a fresh perspective to the team etc etc. In reality, most managers see it as a bit of a necessary chore to have a new trainee on the team- at the start they have little to no experience but are expected to be involved in more than just admin tasks, which means there is a lot of time taken by more experienced staff in training them. Quite often it takes longer to explain a task to a new trainee and then correct what he/she delivers than to simply do it yourself. However, the investment pays off as they become more experienced.

The trainees who do best in my workplace are those who spend the first year or so taking every opportunity to watch how more experienced people do things, work with/meet a range of people (even if really just shadowing them), making themselves useful by offering to do some of the admin tasks (eg taking notes, photocopying or even making the tea for a meeting), listening a lot and showing a willingness to be involved. Those who come in expecting to lead the way from day 1 tend to end up frustrated and disliked. Better to leave the suggestions of new ways to do things until you have a bit of experience. If you do see something that could be better done differently asking 'I wonder why we don't do x here' will go down better than 'We obviously should be doing x, aren't I clever to think of it'.

My manager is famous for his hands-off approach. I approached the grad who had his rotation here a couple of years ago and he said he really struggled, having spoken to the other grads I believe my placement is a bit of an anomaly.

I have an end of rotation interview coming up with some senior managers and apparently they focus on how a grad has improved their team during their time. I'm worried I'll f all to say.

NoIdon’tWatchLoveIsland has good advice, I nodded to all that was said.

It sounds from your update that this is more about worrying you should be making changes than actually being annoyed that dammit you know best and won’t people just listen ? If that is the case stop worrying, take a breath, and do what you can do.

I promote the grads who offer to help either me or the other managers in my team - the ones who will spend their training period proactively introducing themselves to everyone in my team, taking notes, perhaps even conducting 1-2-1 interviews re top challenges with key stakeholders as determined by me. If they manage to create a pitch or presentation to me to fix a problem I / my team haven’t recognised yet (but a stakeholder has) then all the better - I am quite happy to take credit for having a smart grad on my team even if the solution isn’t strictly within my scope of work. People like to say otherwise but Finance / Banking is a very much an industry where you need to manage up to do well - so if you should focus on fixing problems for your boss and their contempories or their bosses.

A good way to start building your reputation is by becoming the research person in your team or offering to fact check /format presentations before they go out. The grad I managed who is now my boss’ boss, used to be the one who would keep up to date on the external industry for me and offer me a synopsis of the impacts of key regulatory changes and how the market was responding to them. It was so useful.

Hi OP

I work with grads and in an organisation that has gone through enormous change.

I do think you need more manager support. If you're coming at an issue out if the blue people will be defensive, if you suggest to your manager that you would like to look at x process and get them to send out an email saying 'I have tasked OP with looking at better ways of doing x' then you've got a much better start. The manager should also know who is doing what, it's a bit weird for you to do a load of work on something and then find out someone else is already working on it. It sounds like the whole team needs better communication about who is working on what.

Also it sounds like you are presenting solutions to people. It always goes down better if people think they've come up with the ideas themselves. Set up a focus group with representatives from teams that are affected by what you're looking at together. Have an ideas session. Collate it and research it then ask them what they think about your solution. If it gets to implementation stage they will feel much better about it if they have been engaged from the start

As someone who has to bring about change as part of my job, I would say that is quite tricky and has to be handled carefully. The path is not straight and you have to be careful whose toes you step on as there are vested interests who could push back. You have to get to know people, consult opinions, figure out which way the wind blows and acquire institutional knowledge and management buy in before barrelling in. Often patience is required. It is easier for someone with experience and time at the organisation but quite difficult to navigate for someone who is fresh out of uni.

The problemswith suggesting changes is that often you will need input from others like your manager in order to implement and will thus be adding to their workload rather than relieving it.

All in, a good grad is someone who makes their senior's lives easier and can be trusted to do admin and more cerebral jobs reliably and thoroughly. Use this time to learn as much as you can and take notes so people don't have to repeat instructions. You should of course follow instructions, deliver in a timely manner and ask for clarification if unsure so you don't veer off course taking days to give a work product that is not to spec. Be pleasant to work with.

You'll be great.