Finance Assistant Apprentice Review

I am responsible for reviewing customers debt and cash allocation working closely with 3rd party company, escalate as necessary. I'm preparing weekly Quicks for my manager, also taking care of this file at the Month End and creating/ preparing a new one for each month. I reconcile our BS in two separate systems. Taking care of several smaller tasks on our side- e.g. transferring hrs between contacts, creating reports and updating them for my FM, helping with adjustments on our system that keeps track of people working hrs, helping with Month End, raising journals etc, basically assisting my FM whenever needed.

Certainly. I definitely developed my Excel skills a lot. I learn a lot about internal systems and how to use them, where to go in case of a problems. I feel like I become even more organized and learned how to prioritize my work, but also respond in a timely manner.

I enjoy what I do at work, learning new things and also learning much more about my company. I don't really like learning with my learning provider, don't think they offer enough time for their teachers to go through the material and often we are left to ourselves. I don't fully feel supported in my learning by my manager, I feel on occasions like my learning is a burden and I am there to do the job.

I like that to some extent it depend from us when we would like to take certain modules, but at the same time where outside of apprenticeship (eg. collage) everyone would take synoptics after first three modules because it is base on them, apparently we are not allowed. We can do synoptics at the end of our program which seam a little counter-intuitive for me. Also asking for any time of help outside of our online classes is quite timely manner and you can do it only through website/ email.

I feel very supported by Emerging Talent- team responsible for apprenticeship scheme. Unfortunately, I can't say that as to my own manager. He/she would like me to prioritize my work over my learning and as this is my first role in finance (in office at all to be honest) I feel like often I am not given enough information, I was told to be indecisive by my manager because apparently I ask to many questions. this led to me asking as less as possible and trying to figure things out by myself or ask anyone else if I can- although, mostly other people are very helpful and friendly.

I feel like the online live classes where we can only ask questions through chat are quite difficult and discouraging. Although, teachers themselves are very helpful, classes are interesting and I think they are trying their best considering the time they are provided for each module- which often we have not enough time to go through it all. Apart from that I like their materials and that's it.

Well, overall my qualification helps a lot but I wouldn't say it is thanks to my learning provider. I did 2 previous levels in the collage and simply the knowledge from there and what I have learn now tied up with what I am doing. It made easier to understand what I am doing in my job on a day to day basis.

Yes, definitely there is plenty. There are several training provided around our day to day work and I am really grateful cause often they help a lot to make sense of what I am doing, especially the ones on internal processes and systems. There are also some social activities, like for e.g. online coffee meeting or we have a team meeting on the side when allowed, which I find helpful.

Yes

Despite some issues I have I still believe DHL is great place to work. Obviously it will depend a lot on your manager, but I believe a lot of other apprentices are in much better environment and after my apprenticeship I would still like to work at DHL but maybe in a different BU, under different manager. I feel like DHL overall is a great place to work for, they do offer a lot as a employer to us and I like the diversity and possibility for training and progression in your role.

As an apprentice- make sure you keep track of what you are doing in your day to day job, it will be very important at some point. Try to keep open mind as each manager and role is different and something someone said to you before you started may be completely far from your situation. And most importantly, you need to be resilient, working and learning at the same time comes with challenges and you will often need to push through and possibly you may be your only cheerleader at times.