Laura Stables

"I do believe my personality types match with me. It says I am a coach: I help people, I care about people and I am trusted to help people follow their careers. It also says I am a quality controller. This suggests I like to ensure the work is completed to a good standard, help people achieve these goals and tasks and understand how to get there. "

"I joined on the graduate programme in November 2019 and since been given more and more responsibility. My role is to document changes in the IT system and analyse whether they will work/how much money the change will take and to report back to the client and suppliers. My client is the Post Office and I have to report back to them on whether the change will work/be useful and a cost benefit analysis. Another role of mine is SLA reporting and creating 4 different reports each month and report this back to the client again. Another responsibility I have picked up recently is third party management. This is the run and hold meetings with our suppliers and clients and ensure they run smoothly, and I can report any information back to them. My starting salary is £26,500 a year. The best thing about the role is talking to loads of different people and understanding each persons needs. My confidence has improved a lot, and I am more confident with talking to a range of people. "

"To do my role, I must have gone to university, as It is a graduate programme. This means I have to have a degree 2:1 (grade) or above. It doesn't matter which degree I completed, but something that showed that I can work effectively and manage my own time. I was in a completing different role before this. I was an assistant manager at a bar for 3 years after university, which showed me how to manage my time, many leadership qualities and work really hard doing night shifts and intense physical activity. This job was a great way to get out of hospitality, and have a 9-5 career with a big corporate company. "

"Outside of work, I love to play netball. I have played netball since being in primary school and have always played for a club outside of school/university and work. This keeps me super fit and I meet so many good friends through. I love being competitive and winning a match. It is a great feeling!"

"I work within the ICT department, talking to the Post Office, and I help them create a good ICT system that they can use in the Post Office shops. I help run a system to help people to access money from their bank account. Day to Day I create graphs, presentations and documents to show how good our ICT system is for each customer. I will discuss prices of each ICT system to the Post Office and the bank and help build their ICT experience. I sit on my laptop reply to a lot of emails a day, create powerpoints with flow charts and diagrams to show how the ICT system works. I then create Skype/Teams meetings with clients/suppliers and my colleagues to discuss if that process is correct. I have to be able to speak confidently and research about each IT area in detail. I am not technical, and therefore don't always understand how it works, but I will make sure I research and ask loads of questions to ensure I know what I am saying and that I understand the process and IT. "

"You could do ANY subjects to do this job- if you get a degree at University. I studied Biology, Psychology, History, Law- nothing to do with ICT. But I went to University and did a degree on crime and punishment, and I still managed to get into the world of ICT! I did GCSEs and got a range of 13 GCSEs from A*-B and then went on to do A levels and got C,C,C,D. Then went to university in Newcastle and did a degree in Criminology. I then have completed a lot of management courses through the bar industry and now I am completing an apprenticeship alongside my graduate programme, in leadership and women in leadership. This shows me many perspectives of leadership and especially how women can peruse a career in leadership. "