Meet Jake - Business Manager to the Chief Information Officer

What advice would you offer to students starting their career journey?

Be open about your aspirations and ambitions with the people who play an active role in your development – your network can’t help if they don’t know.

What skills and behaviours are required to excel within your current role?

Being able to communicate key information to senior stakeholders. It’s rare that everyone speaks the same ‘language’ (even if they’re in the same company), so it’s important to understand the purpose of the information that you’re communicating and what outcome or action it needs to produce.

What advice would you give students on how to prepare for interviews?

Do your research on the company and industry and be clear on why you’re applying, and why you feel that the role or scheme is for you.

What advice would you offer to students on finding the right employer?

My advice is to broadly understand what type of work environment would motivate you to work at your best, perhaps write down 3 bullet points or words that summarise this. Then research your prospective employer’s mission statement, values and culture and compare against what you felt was important in a work environment. You should be able to get a good feeling for whether an employer is the right fit from there!