Michael ... my first four months

Hey, I thought it would be important/useful to first tell you a bit more about the Finance Graduate role, before telling you more regarding my experience of CSC so far... so here it goes

The Finance role for graduates begins with being assigned a role – the roles are hugely varied; for example you could be working with Fixed Assets, be in control of the General Ledger, be placed onto a very large account like the NHS or be part of the Transaction Shared Services. Although each role is different it always has similar core principles that focus on gaining you the right experience you need for your future career and exam qualification.

When starting as a Finance graduate you are assigned to a manager but also have a mentor and a ‘buddy’ so straight from the get go you have a number of people all willing to offer guidance or help out on anything, like reminding you that you have to press 9 before entering a number to dial externally, but also advice on qualifications, where, how and who to take them with.

Within the roles you tend to work in monthly cycles, which are quite deadline oriented especially around quarter end or the dreaded year end. For each role there are usually a plethora knowledge transfer notes which explain the majority of all the tasks that need to be completed for your role at certain times. Significance is placed upon getting your assigned work done with a high level of accuracy so the usually well oiled machine that is finance can tick over nicely! However all roles are different, all tasks are different and some will be more pressured than others you just have to be adaptable, ready to put the work in and willing to work with a lot of spreadsheets.

A lot has happened in the first four months with my assigned role...

Firstly, since my first blog I was given a great opportunity to work over in Prague for six weeks supporting intercompany processes assisting the transition, consolidation and simplification of Inter-company processes currently being transferred into Prague from a number of business units. It was a brilliant experience as not only was I exposed to a completely new work environment in a new place that I hadn’t had the chance to visit before, but I was also able to gain valuable experience and an alternative perspective of different working roles and start to end processes. One thing that I still continue to admire is the consistent level of CSC’s Culture regarding the fact you can talk and/or ask help from anyone and they will try hard to help – being almost like a completely new employee again in a different country this was a very welcoming factor.

I believe it was an excellent time to have been sent out to Prague as due to the fact that quite a few business units are being transferred out there, everything was changing and as I found out the changing environment was geared up for numerous chances of process improvements.  

I think the most valuable experience I received  during the six weeks surrounded the creation and adaptation of Macros in Visual Basic – during my time these skills became invaluable when trying to consolidate and simplify processes and I’m sure will continue to be of great use in my future roles! During the 6 weeks I created or adapted a number of documents which previously were mostly manual in their completion, but now run at the touch of a button. I streamlined a few projects including a transfer of some duties regarding supplier reconciliation to a new team in Prague which now means they were in control end to end of the process ; so no more chasing up different people for certain documents.  

That’s it from me now, hope this provided a further insight to Finance at CSC; if you have any questions drop them in the box below and I’ll get back to you!