Life in the (not-so) new role…

I’m conscious that I’ve not written anything here for many months since I signed on the dotted line to join my current employer, a global investment bank in Birmingham. Initially things were just too busy and more recently I’ve not known what to write, but with a new year comes a renewed enthusiasm for picking up habits which have lapsed and a motivation to start writing.

The new job has been going well and I’ve learnt an awful lot in the past 7 months or so. I’m enjoying working in a truly global team, perhaps spending more time on the phone working with colleagues in Frankfurt than I do talking to those sat next to me here in Birmingham. I’ve enjoyed my visits to Germany too and have been brushing up on my basic German, although I’m still not confident enough to use it on my colleagues. I do enjoy listening to them though and trying to work out what they are saying. It has also been interesting to learn about some of the more quirky aspects of German employment law. Last summer, shortly after I joined, I spent 5 weeks delivering training to our 2015 Global Graduate class, which was an amazing experience and I am looking forward to doing the same again this year when the next cohort joins. Continue Reading…

New Year, New Blog Post

We’re more than a week into the new year now and I thought it was time I sat down and wrote something. I started this post a few days ago but somehow never reached the point of clicking ‘publish’. Unfortunately in light of the awful news in Paris yesterday, it feels a little selfish now, but I’m not sure I can articulate my thoughts on that eloquently enough to do it justice right now. Thankfully for the rest of us, life goes on and I guess it is very important that it does. We cannot let acts of terror change that. Continue Reading…