Administrator Review

I was involved in making a number of risks decisions and mitigating live risks. On top of this I am also involved in regular correspondence with International regulators ensuring that we adhere to our MOU agreements as well as ensuring that there is a swift transfer of data between the competent authorities. I also review regulatory returns highlighting areas of risk.

I have learnt how to become adaptable and flexible in the way that I work in order to ensure that I am able to help the team to achieve its goals. I have also learnt a lot around the regulations in the financial services industry and ensuring that appropriate action is taken to mitigate risks.

I loved working in my team, I was able to learn from a number of very knowledgeable, patient and experienced members of staff who were able to ensure I could develop quickly. The studying side was more independent however the support given from my team made this a lot easier.

The programme was still fairly new when I joined (second year) so it wasn't the most structured however it ended up working well. In my team, I thought that the work was well organised with a clear strategy on how I should progress. I also thought that the buddy system worked well.

I received a lot of support from within my team. I was mentored by an experienced member of staff as well as being introduced with a number of other senior staff to ensure that I developed in the correct way as well as providing me guidance on ways to improve and courses that were available to me.

I thought that the training provider was the worst thing about the apprenticeship. You received a call every couple of months which didn't seem specific to the role I was performing and apart from one full day course I did not have much help with my professional qualification. The weekly reviews also had little structure making it unclear on what to right about.

I found that the qualification could have been more tailored to the role I was performing. As this was not the case it made it very difficult to link it to any of my cases. I found the internal training a lot more useful than the knowledge gained from these.

There are lots of social activities that you can get involved with. I like this a lot as it doesn't pressure you to go along however the options are available to everyone. This really helped me to integrate into the organisation a lot quicker as well as establish friendships across departments.

Yes

I think the FCA is a great way to work with a very open-minded culture towards flexible working as well as a lot of interesting work to get involved with. I personally feel it is one of the best places to learn about financial services and develop a broad and deep knowledge.

I would advise people who are applying to go in with an open-minded approach. It is very hard to stick to a development plan with new opportunities always becoming available. I would also recommend that you consider the apprenticeship instead of university as it provides you with as much, if not more of an opportunity to learn and grow.