We are currently recruiting for Alpha FMC, a leading provider of consulting, benchmarking and implementation services to financial institutions in the UK and globally. They have a particular focus on the asset and wealth management industries. The scheme has been running for one year now and offers the opportunity to work in an entrepreneurial environment where candidates can gain early exposure and responsibility. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be giving you an insight to what it’s actually like to work in management consultancy in the financial services sector.
8.15am – I arrive at the client site to meet the client Project Manager (PM). I am working for a large asset manager that is implementing a new global Client Relationship Management (CRM) system. I am taking charge of the preparation of materials, scheduling and the delivery of training to the global business. We have a call scheduled with the Singapore office to discuss their training needs and the logistics of training their team members given the distance from the London headquarters.
9:30am – The call finishes and I discuss the action points that have arisen from the call with the client PM. It has emerged that we need to change the training implementation timeline and I’ll need to work on that today so that it can be agreed in the Project Board meeting tomorrow morning.
9:45am – I return to my desk sitting alongside the CRM implementation team and I receive an call from the Alpha PM (who is working at another client site today) to advise that another member of Alpha will be joining the project. The PM asks me to brief my colleague when he arrives at 10:30 (He has flown in from South Africa this morning). In the meantime, I check my emails and update the training implementation plan and send it to the client PM for sign off.
10:30am - I meet my colleague in a local coffee shop in order to brief him on the project so far, the delivery timetable and the detail of his new role.
11am – We return to the client site together and I show him around the office and introduce him to the project sponsor.
11:30am – I have received a number of feedback emails from across the business units in response to the Training Approach document that I sent out for comment last week. They represent a wide spectrum of opinion; some simply say that everything looks great, while others express concerns over whether their teams will be receiving enough training and are keen to know every detail. I spend the next hour calling the various stakeholders to explain our approach in more detail and provide reassurance if necessary. The calls go well and I relay to the client that I am confident that all the major stakeholders are now ‘on board’.
12:30pm – I grab lunch on my way to the Alpha office, which is only a five minute walk away from the client as I have organised a lunch meeting with a colleague. The meeting is to finalise the handover of the last project that I worked on that I left to take on this new role. We go through the outstanding questions on some Excel models that I built for the project and both agree that the project is now officially in his hands.
1:30pm – I return to the client site and go straight into a meeting with the project Data Analyst, a contractor. He is explaining to me some of the data migration challenges and the extra pressure that this will put on staff members prior to their go live date. It is important that I understand this fully because I will need to tailor the training to allow them to perform the necessary data cleansing efficiently and correctly.
3:30pm – I return to my desk, check my emails and then continue to work on the training materials that I will need to deliver the first training session next week. I’m creating real life business scenarios and trying to make it as interesting as possible in order to engage team members that can sometimes be resistant to change and new ways of working. They are also often concerned about the training taking up time from their day jobs and it is vital that they get as much from the training as possible.
6:30pm – I have a quick call with the Alpha PM to discuss progress and any important points from the day’s events then log off and return home. It’s January so it will just be a quiet night for me!
