I work for fDi Intelligence, a part of the Financial Times, within Benchmark. Benchmark is a data platform, where a company interested in FDI, can locate which location is best for them to invest in. The platform has both quality and cost results, meaning that a company looking to invest in a different country, can take all factors into account and make the best decision possible. I also work on Cities of the Future within fDi Intelligence. The Cities of The Future is a ranking competition, taking multiple cities for a certain area or industry, and ranking by which comes out the best in a number of different data points, along with a survey that the city fills out themselves.During my time at Financial Times, I have learnt a lot of new skills, and improved on previous skills. My day to day job mainly includes using excel. Whereas before I would have been competent at excel before, I would say that I am very well trained in excel now. My knowledge of formulas, and using all components of excel is far greater than when I started at the Financial Times. I use excel to upload data onto the fDi Benchmark system, along with cleaning data for use, and preparing data for the Cities of the Future ranking. I also meet deadlines much more promptly than I used to. Despite always meeting a deadline, now I have tasks completed well in advance, allowing for additional quality control, and time to ensure my work is at the highest quality that it can be.

I spent 4 years as an employee of Ikea, with 1 year taken out for my placement at EY. During my 4 years at Ikea, I became a dependable, multi-skilled co worker. This was due to my helpful nature, where I would be happy to cover anyone for a break or holiday (which helped me learn how to work in departments outside of Ikea Food, such as cookshop), stay extra after my shift had finished to ensure the department was in a good position, trying to be fair by splitting up the responsibilities that noone wanted, and trying to make the job as fun as possible for all involved.Due to how long I remained at Ikea, I became a big help to the managers and team leaders, by being a link between them and the department. As I had lots of experience in Ikea Food, and had seen different ways that things were done, I could give good, constructive feedback to my superiors to help make the department run smoothly.My favourite part of working in Ikea Food was having the responsibility to organise 3 tertials. A tertial is where each department is given a budget to have a team bonding activity. I was able to organise the tertials, as when I started we did not have one for a year, and I was more than happy to put the work in to let our department have a good time. The first one was at short notice, so a pub quiz was organised. The next was a BBQ at a local restuarant/bar, and the final one was a disco in a local lawn bowls club. I was nominated for co-worker of the month for my part in helping with the tertials, and also gained experience at leading, and organising an event for a large team.

Between my 2nd and 3rd year of university, I took a year out to work in industry. This year was at EY in their Restructuring section of the Transaction Advisory Services (TAS) department.Before I started in EY, I had no previous experience of Administrations and Liquidations. Therefore, I found the first month or two quite difficult to pick up the jargon that was involved with the work. However, once I got to grips with this, I started to really enjoy the work that I was doing and believe that I learnt a lot in my time there.My responsibilities varied on what company I was doing work on. When I started, my main responsibilities were client acceptance, and helping my superiors in any way they needed me. This could be basic tasks such as preparing letters to go out to preparing the wages of a company in administration. Within the last 3 months of my time at EY, some of my workmates went on study leave to prepare for their accountancy exams. During this time I was to take over their work, and make things run as if they were not missing at all. I became very busy during this time, but thoroughly enjoyed the work given to me, giving me a glimpse of what real working life would be like.