Aaron Smith Email & Phone Number

Manchester, Gb

Manchester, Gb

Manchester, England, United Kingdom

During my first year at Deloitte Consulting, I've had the opportunity to take ownership of a variety of client deliverables, both recurring and ad-hoc. A highlight of my experience was a longer-term Public Sector project where I developed personal ownership of a PMO workstream, and harnessed my innovative skills to implement process improvements and contribute to the ongoing development of a key governance forum. During this project we utilised leading digital tools such as Jira, Confluence and Kanban board to advance the efficiency of our project management approach. This greatly developed my digital skills, leading to professional proficiency in these tools as well as Excel and the wider Microsoft suite of applications. I'm grateful that my contributions to this project were recognised through a "Highly Commended" distinction in the Best Project Newcomer category in November 2023 and a "Collaborating for Impact" award in December 2023.I'm passionate about collaboration and its power to drive impact, which led me to pursue opportunities to contribute to internal strategy development as an assistant Chief of Staff, working closely with senior leaders on high-profile initiatives. This opportunity also advanced my creative skills and evolved my thinking around how to best present information, with improved competency in PowerPoint decks and report writing.In my side-of-desk work I have been passionate about advancing my sustainability interests, having engaged in educational and training pathways such as Green Project Management (GPMb), the Cambridge Institute for Sustainable Leadership's "Towards Net Zero" course, and internal learning journeys such as the Major Programmes Sustainability pathway. I am keen to develop my career further around sustainability, contributing to our Net Zero future and promoting climate equity.

Building upon my initial success during the internship, I transitioned into a part-time role where I continue to play a key role in enhancing the company's online presence and driving engagement across social media platforms. I manage the design and scheduling of engaging content for both Instagram and LinkedIn, ensuring a consistent brand voice and strategically aligning posts with business objectives and the promotion of new services. This ongoing experience allows me to leverage my understanding of social media analytics to track key metrics and adapt content strategies for continued growth and engagement.

In this position, I have managed and facilitated the creation and implementation of 4 social media channels, namely Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook. The start of this project required me to write a report and executive summary, alongside quantitative conducting market research, before presenting it to Associates. This has required creative content creation, post scheduling and robust analytics to measure the project’s success. As a result, I increased the accounts reached on Instagram by 200% in a fortnight, and increased content interactions by 800% in the last week of August.I also recommended and initiated SEO improvements, in the process collaborating with a 3rd party business, which contributed to a 50% increase in google click-throughs within 3 months. This project also required report writing, market and competitive research, and greatly increased my theoretical knowledge of search engine and website optimisation.

Manchester, England, United Kingdom

During my internship I primarily worked across the Digital teams within the retail division of the Bank, particularly UX which was my home team. I conducted primary research with potential customers and bank colleagues, and secondary research to gain wider market insights. Alongside colleagues, I worked to implement redesigns to the Student Account webpage and worked on search engine optimisation. I also proposed and featured in a promotional and educational marketing campaign. After gaining an interest in research, I worked within existing projects to produce further explanatory research, which I used to present recommendations to Directors. I also collated research to be used in a live webpage guide.Alongside this, I spent the last 2 weeks of my internship shadowing the Values & Ethics team, working on a variety of live projects. I conducted further research into how the Bank could become more sustainable, and researched the ethical policies and charity partnerships of other businesses in industry. I produced a draft press release for an upcoming campaigning event, and a Gannt Chart to track the progress and maintain the deadlines of this project. I followed the Bank's customer-led Ethical Policy to provide ethical approvals or rejections for businesses that operate in areas covered by the policy. I also carried out visioning for a potential future event, including establishing a focus and finding potential venues.

During this three-month internship, I had the opportunity to collaborate with a team of five students on a research project that culminated in presenting recommendations to a panel of 20 business consultants. This experience allowed me to develop my research and analytical skills as we delved into Diversity, Equity and Inclusion strategies at leading global universities. I took the initiative to manage project logistics, including coordinating with third-party representatives and liaising with project coordinators to ensure smooth communication and progress. My creativity and presentation skills were put to the test as I designed and delivered the final presentation, effectively communicating our findings and recommendations to a professional audience. This experience provided valuable insights into the consulting industry and cross-cultural, remote working.

Birmingham, England, United Kingdom

During my time at Urban Cycles I conducted day-to-day budgeting tasks whilst organizing techniques to increase the efficiency of tax returns before submission to HMRC, as well as adapting to manage furlough payments at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. I developed my accountancy and Sage 50 software skills through self-motivated and organised learning, proactively organising learning sessions with an experienced mentor. My numerical and analytical skills were further increased by identifying trends over time. The role also involved various admin tasks such as filing invoices and refunds, website upkeep, communicating with suppliers to resolve discrepancies, managing social media pages and some shop floor work.

Birmingham, England, United Kingdom

In this project I co-created a social media strategy to encourage young people to follow Covid-19 guidance and counteract the spread of fake news in collaboration with Birmingham City Council. As part of this I designed content alongside a group of 20 young people, and personally designed a bingo-style quiz which was adapted and used by the main Beatfreeks team at a later date. To ensure success I has to communicate clearly with coworkers, listening to a variety of ideas so that we could develop the best content and monitor success. We identified and engaged with current trends and popular social media platforms for our target demographic, in particular the use of TikTok and Instagram challenges to target 16-25 year olds. Overall the project was paid for and endorsed by Birmingham City Council and required strong planning to gain social media traction, which raised the interest of local reporters and journalists who further promoted our campaign through articles and radio interviews.