My new placement

Posted by: Annabel Copeland - Posted on:

I know you have all been waiting with baited breath and checking this website everyday for another blog from me, I’m happy to make all your dreams come true.

Congratulations to everybody who has been offered a place on the scheme, a huge achievement and a really exciting start to your career! I hope you are all off gallivanting and enjoying these 4 months before starting.

It’s been 5 months since I last blogged and things are completely different for me – I want to give you all an honest reflection of when things don’t go to plan on the scheme. If it starts to sound like a sob story at any point, feel free to abandon ship and read something more uplifting.

On Monday I started a new placement. Your first year finance placement is supposed to last until the end of August, so this move comes very prematurely. My original placement ran into some problems with how to facilitate a trainee. After exams in December, I was in the office 4-5 days a week, and so required lots of work and exposure to continue my development on the scheme. Due to lots of management changes within the team, there was no longer capacity for a trainee and I found myself not really doing any work, and twiddling my thumbs. It’s hard to discuss problems like these with senior managers and directors, as to avoid ‘complaining.’ It’s like sending a meal back in a restaurant – it can get really awkward but at the end of the day you don’t want raw food.  It was challenging and I’ve had a lot of tough conversations but I’m sure in the future these will be invaluable. After a while, and with lots of input from the academy, it was decided that a move would be best.

On the up side – my desk at the new organisation is much bigger and there is an endless supply of sugary snacks, what else do you really need? In all seriousness, the support from peers and academy reps in my region has been amazing, and made the whole process smooth and easier for me and my old/new managers. If you run into problems at any point during the scheme, I really advise utilising these support systems to gain the best advice you can, and learn from other people’s experiences. My new managers and team are really welcoming and aware of a graduates needs, and I’ve already got started on projects – so it all worked out in the end.

Our finance exams are in the first week of June so I’m really looking forward to getting them out the way – life is getting much busier again and the juggling act of work, revision and socialising continues to keep us on our toes. I chose to do these lectures face-to-face, which works for me as I find it much easier to stay engaged rather than watching remotely. It means you get to see other trainees as well which is great for extra-curricular activities (i.e. group revision and pub seminars).

Look forward to meeting some of you in September and passing on my pearls of wisdom (I’ll try and find some), hola me on twitter @acopelandNHS if you can’t wait that long.

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