Experimenting with a flexible career path with Emily
As a Graduate Information Developer in Cambridge, Emily manages and grows the ever-expanding repository of knowledge developers live by: “I never liked 100% of my time being spent on programming, so I branched out. We have a website called Arm Developer, which is our hub of technical information. If a developer doesn’t know something, they go there for answers. For me, it’s a combination of research, assembling code and putting together written communications. I didn’t start out as the best writer but I wanted to do it, so Arm got me some technical writing training.”
It’s the flexibility and relaxed leadership that Emily really admires about Arm. She says she was able to be honest about her experiences on her internship and get help in focusing her graduate programme in the areas she was strongest: “After I got the offer, I spoke to my previous manager and had a really transparent conversation. I explained that ‘I liked this bit of my summer internship, but I didn’t like this bit’ and so I was allowed to make the graduate role my own. The whole culture, I just love it. This isn’t like a lot of companies that say one thing and do the opposite. If Arm says something, they stick to it.”
“If you don’t like the rigid paths set out by other graduate schemes, Arm is perfect.”
If you’re still experimenting with where your talents lie, Emily’s a prime example of being given the time and opportunities to hunt down your dream role: “We’re very open here to giving you control. The mindset is, ‘You want to develop yourself? Tell us how we can develop you.’ I'm an Information Developer, yes, but I’m curious about machine learning. So I asked to completing a three-month rotation into a machine learning role, and my manager was really encouraging. If you don’t like the rigid paths set out by other graduate schemes, Arm is perfect.”
Following the first couple of months of Emily’s graduate programme, Emily had an idea for creating a Graduate Committee, “a committee for grads, led by grads, meaning that they help graduates to network across all regions and enhance their understanding of what their career could like at Arm”. She reached out to the Peoples Team who fully endorsed this idea and the Graduate Committee was set up.