Graduates: Why Business Transformation is the Perfect Place for You

With our Graduate Scheme now open for applications, Laura Morris, Head of Business Transformation, explains why her team is perfectly placed to offer graduates the best chance to develop their skills and build their careers in a diverse and interesting setting.

If I had to explain the Business Transformation team in one phrase, I would call it ‘the team that joins the dots’. The biggest strategic projects at Bruntwood sit within Business Transformation and Digital, and involve work on Sustainability, Smart Buildings, Diversity & Inclusion, Customer Digitisation, Data and Reporting, and Supplier Management and Spend. Our work is so varied that there’s barely such a thing as a ‘typical day’, and the thing I love most about my role is being able to have an overarching view of the business and be involved in work that really sits at the forefront of everything we do.

All of this makes Business Transformation a golden opportunity for anyone joining us in a graduate role, because you’ll be guaranteed an in-depth view of the inner workings of the business and how everything ties together. You’ll be exposed to the mechanics of how Bruntwood operates while also being part of the solution to the challenges we face and delivering positive change. So, if you’re looking for a way to develop essential business skills alongside high level strategic insight, this is it!

Now, you might be thinking: ‘OK, so what skills do I need?’ Well, the best way I can answer that is by getting you to think about how you’re wired… Are you that person in your family who’s super organised? Do you love a spreadsheet, or get a massive sense of relief from turning a hectic situation into a clear plan? Do you seek to find solutions to complicated problems and want to make things happen? If so, then I would encourage you to apply. 

I say all this because it’s not so much about the experience you have - you definitely don’t need to have managed projects before - but your skills, and real love for ordering and collating lots of detailed information, while still being able to see the bigger picture and being focused on the outcomes you are looking to deliver.

One question I also get asked quite a bit is whether you need to be skilled in tech or IT to be in Business Transformation. But, while an understanding of IT and tech is useful, you definitely don't need to be hugely tech-savvy to be good at the job — a talent for organisation is the main thing.

Along with great organisation skills, an ability to digest and communicate quite complex information can be really useful. A lot of the time, you’ll be gaining very detailed insights into quite technical issues, and it can be challenging to communicate the key points to stakeholders in senior leadership who just need a snapshot of that information for decision-making purposes.

That said, this ability can be developed and you’ll definitely have tons of expert support behind you, working with experienced Project Managers to understand how to present complex data in a way which engages your audience and brings them on a journey with you. The beauty of the role is that you will engage with interesting and diverse subject matter, whilst learning business-critical skills that will allow you to play a key role in supporting the organisation to deliver real change.

Bruntwood has the advantage of being just big enough to provide you with decent exposure to a wide array of projects, without those projects being syphoned off into individual teams, as they would be in a global company, for example. And that’s important — a good project manager can turn their hand to anything, because the basic process for managing a project stays the same in principle. But with Bruntwood, you’ll get the opportunity to apply that in practice in a number of different contexts.

This means you can take that experience into either a general Project Management role, or move into more specialised work, such as Sustainability or Digital projects. In fact, project management skills are always in demand in any business, regardless of role, so the great thing about gaining experience within Business Transformation is the flexibility to carve your own career path and step into more senior strategic roles, or branch off into consultancy work in the future.

When I think about my own career, I can definitely say that I’ve been able to accelerate my development because of those opportunities to gain exposure to a wide range of business functions, which was a real privilege as it meant I was able to learn so much, and forge really strong professional relationships at the same time. I think that’s a very exciting prospect for a graduate.

And ultimately, that’s what we’re all about at Bruntwood. We really want to nurture anyone who joins our team, and work together to help them grow and progress. Our philosophy is ‘Shape Your World’, and that says it all, really. We’re not setting this up as an ‘in and out’ graduate scheme. If you’re thinking about applying for this role, then you can be sure that you’ll be with people who want nothing more than to see you blossom and succeed within the business.

If this sounds like an opportunity you want to grab with both hands, you can apply here — closing date: 28th Feb!