My Placement Year at Brovanture

Richard Jefferies

Brovanture placement student

 

My placement applications went out in a similar fashion to many students in their second year of University, to anyone that would listen. It wasn’t until I had talked to a few of these companies about the roles I had actually applied for, that I realised this perhaps wasn’t for the best as they spoke to me about the “valuable experience” I’d gain from getting to do the same repetitive tasks, all year round.

Finding a placement you will enjoy, it turns out, is just as important to finding one that will give you a valuable working experience.

When applying for the role of “Hyperion Business Consultant”, I, much like my predecessors had no idea what the role really was, but I knew it wasn’t like the generic, endless lists of “Finance Placements” I had seen plastered across my University placement portal up to that point.

What I really wanted from a placement, was a year I could enjoy, a role with plenty to learn and a company that makes me feel comfortable and supported. Then obviously the crowning glory that all placement applicants dream of, the possibility of a graduate role offer.

I ended up with all this and more.

Application Process:

The application process comprised of 2 interviews, one in the Guildford office with some of the previous placement students who had returned as graduates (which I turned up at the wrong building for), and another over a coffee across the road with Marc and Martin, two of the Directors at Brovanture (So much for remembering which building it was that time), along with another previous placement student (There’s quite a few of us now).

The interview was what really sold it for me, they spoke of the variation between projects, working with and learning software I had never heard of and how even the veterans of Brovanture were still revising for, and taking the occasional exam for new pieces of software, well into their careers.

This was a placement I could see myself in, not only that but it was a career path I could see myself exploring further after university if offered the opportunity.

The Year itself:

The company is small, around 25 in size when I first joined in July 2017, but you are surrounded by people happy to help. Those on placement are assigned a mentor, I was assigned Sarah, the previous placement student, and I couldn’t have asked for a more patient teacher. She must have felt like she had her own personal support desk to manage, but no question was too insignificant, and I was ready to tackle all manner of acronyms in no time.

My responsibilities varied throughout the year, I mainly shifted between implementation and support work, I got to work on a variety of different projects with different clients which meant I got to work in different teams as well.

The implementation work involved building systems from scratch or building new additions to existing systems. This usually involved using the clients existing financial system and reproducing it in the Oracle products. This could sometimes involve visiting client sites to meet with them directly, and this is something I got to do a few times in my placement year. Whether that be providing training for one of our clients over a 3 day stretch, or by going on site to help another team build a client’s cloud-based Oracle solution over the course of a couple weeks.

The support work consisted of investigative work whereby I had to find out what had happened in a client’s financial system and resolving it as per their requirements. This was a mix of high and low-pressure situations allowing you to get experience communicating directly with clients as well as thinking on your feet.

The role turned out to be a perfect mixture between technology and finance, building and fixing financial systems without the repetitive tasks involved in actually using them. Whether you come from a background of Maths, Finance or Computing all these skills will be used extensively during a year at Brovanture.

Apply Now

If you’re thinking of applying at Brovanture, I thoroughly recommend you do. If you have any questions about the role or company, feel free to get in touch via LinkedIn, or apply directly at careers@brovanture.com we look forward to hearing from you.