Tell us a little bit about your background
I graduated from Hatfield College, Durham University in 2012, with a degree in Natural Sciences. After that I did a ski season in La Rosire, France, where I was a resort representative at a family ski company. Since I didn't take a gap year before university it was a nice break from normal life!
Tell us about a typical day
I work on the Credit team and my clients invest in debt, so it is really helpful to scour the news for ideas to propose to them. I read the newspaper on the tube and check the 6am FT alerts on my phone, arriving at the office just before 9am. I check my emails first; there are often a number from my clients, with new projects they would like help with. Projects can be focused on any industry, and sometimes the questions I get from these industry experts are very complex, they rather baffled me to begin with!
At around 10:30 it is time for a tea break with my colleagues, Mark and Lucy, who started at the company at the same time as me. We talk about interesting projects we are working on and laugh about something that happened on the ski trip, which I helped to organise.
Then it is back to work; I often receive requests from our team in Shanghai before they finish for the day. There is usually a tight turnaround, so I try and get up to speed as quickly as possible so that the work on the project continues seamlessly.
Then it's time for lunch! Once I am back at my desk, I spend a large part of the afternoon speaking to industry professionals who have experience relevant to the projects I am working on as it is really important to build these relationships so that I can make sure my clients get all the information they are looking for.
And after work
On Thursdays, we might all meet at our local pub to enjoy the company bar tab, and on Fridays, we have drinks and snacks in our office break-out area at 5pm. We relax on the squishy sofas or get competitive over a game of table football, or a tennis match on the Wii.
Why did you choose Cognolink?
I chose Cognolink as it offered me fantastic exposure to the world of business, and I am not sure I would have found another role which has the exposure to clients and C-level executives at such an early stage. I really enjoy the feeling that I am having an impact on our clients decision-making.
The snacks provided are good too!
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Georgina Challinor is a Research Associate with Cognolink. View her Linkedin profile here.