Well, Brovanture is definitely a fast-moving and dynamic environment. This year it has employed the four of us when in the past it only took one placement student a year. A previous placement year graduate, Richard, now a full-time employee, has led the charge on our training. Richard has taken the responsibility of shaping our first steps into learning the essentials of Oracle Cloud EPM Planning.

Here is a little look into how the first two weeks at Brovanture went for each of us!

Christhian

What a start! The summer barbecue and our first chance to meet the whole team. We got the chance to talk to the whole team and this opened our eyes to how specialised our work will be. It really felt like they want us to make the role our own and are giving us every opportunity to do that.

The first week as a Brovanture Business Consultant saw me in meetings and training with different senior members of staff, giving useful insights into how the Oracle applications work as well as the roles that exist within the company. Some of the meetings included: Project Management, Marketing, and Support. Personal development is treated very widely here with Marketing covering, among other things, explaining how valuable my LinkedIn profile and professional online presence was. I need to get onto that!

So far, being part of this smaller team has really made me feel like I can have significant impact. I can be responsible for making a difference when engaging with my colleagues and our clients. Being the last member to join I was the latecomer to the group. Being behind would normally seem daunting but in reality it has meant that I’ve had four mentors instead of one! The other graduates have been lovely and as a team we’ve been encouraged to help one another, focus on co-operation, and reinforce each other knowledge through asking and troubleshooting questions openly.

Furthermore, we’ve been tasked with pitching “#Fresh Thoughts”, coming up with ideas on improvements we think could be made to our training and other aspects of how the company operates. Our fun ongoing projects include altering the layout of the office to increase productivity and planning the long-awaited next, 2021, Christmas party!

Shalini

Hi my name is Shalini, a Computing and IT graduate from the University of Surrey.

In all honesty, all I knew before I started working at Brovanture, is that it dealt with financial software. But 2 weeks later, I have been given introductions to many different parts of the company like project management and support desk, as well as the basics of Oracle Cloud EPM Planning through Richard’s helpful training tasks.

I can already appreciate that Brovanture places a large emphasis on individuals flourishing, they have really taken notice of my personal strengths and have helped nurture my specific set of skills. As an undergraduate I specialised in computing and for this reason, I have been assigned Mike as my mentor, one of the Oracle Cloud EPM Automation experts at Brovanture. He has given me a summary on how Brovanture Auto-Doc works. Even though coding on PowerShell is new to me, it was nice to be able to apply many of the skills learned during my degree. I am looking forward to continuing to learn Auto-Doc, to then help make a difference to the documentation process at the company!

Everyone at Brovanture has been very welcoming and I am really excited about continuing to grow a variety of skills working with the team and their clients!

Robert

What a great two weeks. It hasn’t been easy, but nothing worth doing ever is!

At points, the training has been a challenge, like getting to grips with the new software and using Microsoft Excel features that were new to me. However, Richard has been a great and patient teacher, who explained our practice tasks for Oracle Cloud EPM Planning really well and encouraged us to learn from our mistakes.

We have each been assigned a mentor and a shadow task to experience the more practical application of our newly acquire skills. This, as a more independent role, has been a great way to learn the ins and outs of other skills necessary for the role, such as working with clients and planning projects.

The work has been really rewarding as I have felt included in the team and they have been really good at providing us with direction and expertise. This has helped us to develop so that soon we can become responsible, independent, and valuable members of the team. We will become capable and competent in the necessary expertise with plenty of room to specialize and make the role our own. It really feels like Brovanture is investing in my future.

Aoife

I’m the placement student! I am currently studying Financial Maths at the University of Surrey and applied after hearing about Brovanture through the university’s career centre.

The interview process was very simple and straightforward. The first interview was with Marc who is one of the Directors of the company and then there was a second interview with three current employees. During both interviews I immediately felt at ease and actually enjoyed them!

I have really enjoyed my first 2 weeks here at Brovanture. Everyone has been so welcoming and it really did not take long to feel like part of the #BrovantureFamily. The first week we learnt so much about the software and the different ways that it can be used. It was quite difficult at times but Richard was always there to answer all our questions. At the end of the week everyone in the office went out for lunch, it was very tasty and a lovely surprise. 😊 Being able to learn alongside the 3 graduate students has also been very useful as we have been able to help each other out the whole time.

I have also had a chance to start work on a mini project exploring and creating a presentation around pension schemes to educate the entire Brovature team. This has been very interesting to do and will be something which be useful for me to know for the future. There have been so many useful and varied learning experiences already, which I know will continue for the remainder of my placement year.

Our collective final thoughts

We have had a fantastic time in our first 2 weeks! If you’re thinking of applying to Brovanture, we would recommend it! If you have any questions about our role or Brovanture please feel free to get in touch via LinkedIn, or apply directly at careers@brovanture.com.

Until next time, and there will be more updates from us!

Aoife, Robert, Shalini and Christhian

The Brovanture Cohort of 2021

You can find more posts and news from our Brovanture colleagues HERE