In August 2022 we welcomed Harry to do a week of work experience with us, Harry has never worked in an office before and wanted to get an idea of what to expect before he heads off to university. Let’s see what he got up to while he was with us…
For a college student used to leisurely starts, the expectation of waking up at 7 am and starting work at 9 am on a Monday morning was rather unnatural. However, the combination of a strong coffee and a warm greeting by all the Foresight team soon perked me up and I set about the day’s work with enthusiasm. I should start by saying I have no prior experience in finance of any kind but have always been intrigued by it, and consider it to be a great potential career option, even more so after this week.
From my experience at Foresight, this is a very professionally run business with a closely acquainted team and a friendly working environment.
As a whole, I have really enjoyed this work experience, I learned more than imagined and would definitely recommend it.
My first day involved getting stuck into some research regarding potential prospects for Foresight, this was much more challenging than it sounds with having a previously limited understanding of finance, but with the aid of the experienced team, I was never left perplexed or too far out of my depth. After finishing some research, it was time for my lunch hour which I was free to take between 12 and 2 pm. With the Foresight offices being based in the centre of Hale I was not short of places to grab some food and get back to the office to talk with the team socially before getting back to work.
The next few days at Foresight involved learning more about the roles within the business including Client Managers, Marketing Executive, Wealth Strategists, Finance and Operations. These chats were insightful as they gave me a better understanding of the variety of roles that keep a business like this running.
As the week progressed I was given a few hands-on tasks, I was able to send some emails on behalf of the members of the team in the hopes of getting some meetings set up for potential investment opportunities as well as clients. This task was beneficial because it helped me to develop my experience with my professional communication skills. Generally I enjoyed every task I was given, purely because it was very well explained to me and I was encouraged to ask questions throughout.
All in all it was a very interesting week with plenty of opportunities to learn something new and get involved. As I have previously said, this week has also encouraged me to look more deeply into pursuing a career in financial planning.
