In the past year at Saffron, we’ve formed key partnerships to extend our graduate scheme to encompass university placements and apprenticeships. It’s part of our commitment to people development and the community, which is recognised by Investors in People. This is a post by Chandni Shantilal, who is completing three months at Saffron as part of an apprenticeship programme, about her experience.
Everybody needs to start off somewhere in life, and I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity at Saffron Interactive. I have been training for the role of an administrator at Saffron Interactive and I can say I’ve enjoyed myself every second of the way. I had been placed at Saffron for three months. As I have no experience working within an admin team, I have learnt so much: from little things like how to greet clients professionally, to working with the Learning Technologies show 2014.
Learning Technologies was due to take place on the 29th/30th of January and I worked with the sales and marketing team during the first month. I was working on managing the collateral we had from the previous year but was also assigned to contact several printers to obtain quotations for new print jobs. This was where I feel I had to use skills such as negotiation to find a competitive price but also to get the job done accurately and to more than our satisfaction.
I also worked with our team in Pune, India, when I and a graphic designer produced signage for the office in order to keep it up to Saffron’s standards. For this, I also had to give a short presentation about the signs during our monthly team meeting and, as I’m a very shy person, this was terrifying for me (!) but the team at Saffron were understanding and patient, which gave me the confidence to continue.
I also organised a few events and client meetings. This was where I found myself out of my comfort zone: interacting with clients and using my communication skills to make the clients feel welcome. I also had to use my organisational skills to make sure the office was presentable and the meeting room was ready.
Overall, I feel this was an experience that has taught me several skills that I can carry forward and use in the future. This role has taught me how vital it is to pay attention to detail no matter what task you are working on. This role has shown me how important it is to use communication skills to interact with others. This has also taught me how to look, communicate and behave professionally.
