I've had to go out of my way to seek for opportunities to develop. I've been on the same engagement since I started so I've had to make it my own to be out of that classification and try to learn different skillsets. There is a mentorship program though, and that has probably been the best initiative that I've been involved in. Being paired with my mentor, and with my people leader, I have been set up for success. Not only for technical capability (project management or change management) but also in terms of soft skills.
The graduate program consisted of 1.5 hour sessions every Friday where all graduates would join a group call with the graduate coordinators. During these sessions there were discussions of soft skills and we did more case studies like in the interview process. I don't feel that these sessions added value to my training aside from the social aspect, as we were not provided with the appropriate training/knowledge to complete the case studies (which also had unrealistic expectations in terms of deadlines when we were also working full-time on clients) and the concepts discussed were often too high-level to provide any practical skills. Skills I developed throughout the year were a result of my mentorship and experiences on client work rather than the graduate program training sessions.
The training itself, not sure I picked up many skills in the grad program however, on actual engagements and projects where I had to lead or I was involved, I learned more from shadowing experienced consultants that I did in my formal training part of work. The variety of projects I was on also meant that I picked up some very technical skills that have benefited me for my new project and also skills I will take into the future.
The graduate program was a great forum for training and practising new things. Otherwise there’s a lot of self guided learning at the start but mostly learning by doing on client site. Your learning and development budget can only be accessed 6 months into your role but can be used on whatever accreditation you like
The graduate program was a generally positive experience but lacked structure and was obviously draining on the coordinators. It relied too heavily on case studies and not enough on SMEs within the business and real-world application. On-the-job training is dependent on engagement leads. Most were very experienced practitioners in their field and were eager to develop my knowledge and application, others needed to be prompted more to engage and allow me to participate. The business is generous with supporting learning and development opportunities for which I am very grateful.
