January Update

At the time of writing I'm 3 months, three weeks into the apprenticeship at Rathbones. In a week’s time I move teams and start over, so now is probably a good time to reflect on what's happened so far. I work in the Trust & Tax department along with around 20 other people, all of whom I can honestly say have made me feel very welcome here. My first couple of weeks were filled with training, meeting a LOT of new people, and some very tasty free lunches! If having to make a good first impression many times over wasn't scary enough I was taken into a client meeting on my first day by a director! Quite terrifying to be honest, but I was very grateful of the opportunity because it allowed me to learn a lot in a short space of time. Between then and now I have been taught how to take any client's accounts, new or old, and book-keep from scratch so that their accounts are ready to be sent to them at year-end (which is rapidly approaching!). Between February and September I will spend four months in each of the High Net Worth Client and Tax teams which I am looking forward to. The hardest part of working life so far (besides waking up so early!) has been the recurring thought of 'Did I make the right choice in rejecting university to come here?’. Hearing all my friends talk about student life - the miniscule number of hours they have to work each week, the fact that they've escaped so far from home and of course the social side – has made me question whether my decision was the correct one. But seeing them all over Christmas, hearing their tales of debt and observing their excitement at hearing about my job has confirmed the opinion I had, that an apprenticeship really is the way forward in developing careers. That's not to say that university is a bad choice or a waste of time. Having a degree on the CV is something that I will forever be envious of, and it can certainly increase prospects of getting a job. Yet more and more instances have come to my attention where individuals have attained a degree and then gone into employment in an industry completely irrelevant to their course. For those reasons I'm very happy to be at Rathbones and so far I only have positive things to say to anyone considering being, or hiring, an apprentice.