Sanna talks about their first Centrica graduate placment
Hello everyone!
I’ve just completed my first placement as part of Centrica’s graduate scheme. I was based in the Core systems department in the Smart Metering team. Core systems is all about SAP which is a software used by British Gas to hold customers' data. Think of a database that can do just about anything with data and that is SAP! I worked as a functional analyst which is more exciting than it sounds. Apart from getting involved in seven projects throughout the 8 months, I actually got the opportunity to run my own project. There are not many places you would get the chance to do that during your first placement!
Within Centrica’s IS graduate scheme, you have the opportunity to work in different departments depending on where your interests lie. Once you join the graduate scheme, a list of roles available at the time are sent out to each graduate and then you attend conference calls to find out more about the roles. Once you’ve decided which roles are best for you, you submit your choices and wait for the results! This is a huge opportunity to go into any area within IS and learn more about it, knowing that you chose it yourself.
I chose Core systems because of the variety available within SAP. It is so big, that the possibilities seemed endless and the placement seemed too good to turn down. SAP is a software, but I'm not one of those people who love writing code and therefore I chose to be a functional analyst rather than a technical one. This was a good choice for my first placement as it gave me the basis and understanding of SAP that I can use for the rest of my career.
The learning journey you go through is very much your own and you have the freedom to choose which team you would like to go to next within your department - depending on the roles available at the time. Again, this isn’t the type of choice you would normally get, so I would grab it with both hands and make the most out of it.
Now that my first placement is over, I've moved to a new team in Core systems called Billing & Correspondence. I’ve got another eight months to work towards achieving my goals and I’m looking forward to the ride!
Good luck with your applications and I hope to see you as colleagues very soon.