Sales Apprentice Review

My role involved rotating around a number of different business areas, ranging from; pre-sales, sales support including working on bids and technical support, doing client delivery work. Day to day roles include providing more senior members of the team with organisation support, creating documents (such as presentations or Word documents) and general ad-hoc tasks

Yes I have learnt a number of new skills and continuing to do so. The skills learned can be broken into wider soft skills such as organisation, communication, relationship building skills and more technical 'hard' skills that relate more closely to my work. The combination of the both mean that I have made personal career process.

I enjoy my programme greatly. The business have given me more responsibility than I thought I was going to get in my first few months. I have been lucky to have trusting line managers which has made a difference to my experience. The work is varied and the clients are interesting - also great flexibility.

The programme could be structured better. We are the first cohort of sales apprentices so the process has not been fully refined yet. The structure of the rotations could be done slightly better and I feel that the vocational learning element does not represent the work I am doing very well.

I receive high levels of support from my employer. My direct managers include a line manager and a programme manager, both of which have my development close to their hearts. Every person I have met within the firm has been supportive of my development and thoughtful of my low experience.

There is a high level of support from Middlesex University. There are a number of different tutors, all of which are available on email. There are regular assignment briefing calls which are useful and occasionally university visit sessions which I find less useful. The induction was informative and useful. a

I feel that there is not a very close correlation between what I learn in university and what I can apply in my day job. The sales degree was created for these sort of apprenticeships however they do not consider the complexities of working with BAE's customers - it is not the typical sales process as other more replicable products/services.

Yes I believe there is a range of different events and teams that you can get involved in. I have been invited to a number of different drinks events. There are pages on the intranet for you to get involved with different clubs such as football, rugby or women in tech.

Yes

BAE is a great place to work because you get a high level of flexibility that allows you to work in a way that suits you. The people I have met have all been friendly and helpful and the support throughout the firm is of a high level. The clients and type of work is great too.

I would advise other applicants to research as much about the company as possible. Also be yourself because you do not know what the firm wants to see from you. I was as natural as I could be and it seemed to work for me. BAE is a diverse organisation and values inclusivity in its workforce.