Three employees at Citi talk about the company’s graduate programme and how it has prepared them for working life.
The beginning of September marks a new year for people in many ways, with children returning to school, the end of the summer and the beginning of a new academic year.
Even in the business world, September can be seen as a new cycle, particularly when it comes to hiring new graduates.
Graduate programmes are one way for new early-stage employees to get their first taste of the corporate world, but it can be daunting when you’ve never done anything like it before.
To get an insight into what a graduate programme is like, Siliconrepublic.com spoke to three graduates currently working at Citi.
Sneha Lavnis said having mentors was a deciding factor for her when choosing the programme.
“Even though they were in such high positions, they were so humble and forthcoming and always ready to listen to what I had to say,” she said.
For Susmita Bhowmick, the ability to rotate and work with different teams was key to her decision to join Citi.
“As a graduate, you don’t want to be stuck with something that you don’t want to do, so it gives you the opportunity to actually move from one team to another team and figure out where your interest areas are,” she said.
Vinay Datta said he believes the programme has prepared them as graduates to work for any organisation, no matter what size it is. He also said being able to connect with teams from all over the world is a key advantage.
“The wide range of connections that we can make throughout the world is going to be a big advantage in our careers [going] forward,” he said.
Bhowmick also spoke about the strong graduate network within Citi. “We talk with our London graduates or New York graduates or Belfast graduates and that gives us an idea of what they are working on and if that is something that I would like to try,” she said.
“Everyone in the company really helps you and guides you to be the version that you need to be to work as an experienced resource.”
