A Day in the life of… Mary Cholerton
This month the Gradmail team caught up with Mary Cholerton to find out about what opportunities working on the Business Management scheme has given her and a bit more about how she came to Thales.
“I joined Thales in 2013 with a degree in chemistry. One of the aspects of the business management graduate programme which particularly appealed to me was having the opportunity to work in a variety of different roles and at different sites. My first placement was working in Marketing and Communications in Basingstoke. I grew up and went to university in the South of England, so I was keen to explore new options with my second placement. Therefore once I my first placement was coming to an end and when a placement working in Programme Management in Belfast came up, I jumped at the chance.”
“My second placement gave me the opportunity to develop both in the obvious ways (such as skills and knowledge acquired on the job) but also in more subtle ways – one of the potential challenges of working from a more satellite site is that attending meetings etc. with other parts of the business means getting on a plane. While I wouldn’t have described myself as a nervous flyer before the placement I certainly wasn’t afterwards!”
“In my day-to-day role I was involved in a number of activities, particularly risk management which allowed me to work with programme and work package managers to get an insight into the programmes. I also supported a number of bids and this is something I really enjoyed as the atmosphere can be very fast paced with a really sense of everyone in the team pulling together to deliver for the deadline. Indeed probably my favourite aspect of working for Thales is the people I work with and the sense of teamwork.”
“During my time so far on the graduate scheme I have also taken part in a number of extra-curricular activities. Some of the more memorable activities include baking a gingerbread forest (complete with sugar squirrels) for ‘The Great Thales Belfast Bake Off’ to raise money for charity and helping with the Thales Belfast Family Day at the Ulster Museum. This took place about 2 months into my placement and gave me the opportunity to get to know some of my new colleagues in a different setting. If there is a family day taking place at your site (which happen quite regularly) I thoroughly recommend getting involved in it.”
“While I was in Northern Ireland I took advantage of being in a new environment to go out, explore my surroundings and see some of the sites. This is something I would really encourage others (particularly other graduates to go and do. One of the questions I was often asked when I first started the placement was did I go home at the weekends? While of course I did go home from time to time normally my response was something along the lines of "no I am off to see... this weekend!" Some of my highlights included a tour up the beautiful County Antrim coast including the Giant’s Causeway, a must if you are vising Northern Ireland; a boat trip up the Lagan with a visiting friend on a fantastically sunny day in October; and watching the Belfast Giants ice hockey team at the Odyssey Arena. All of which were easily accessible from my flat where I could walk to work from. Belfast is only a 2 hour train journey from Dublin and as a music lover another highlight was watching Morrissey live in Dublin in December.”
“I have had some fantastic opportunities during my time on the Thales graduate programme both in and outside of the office. Now I am based in the Cheadle Heath Office for my final placement and I am both enjoying my role and finding out what the North West of England has to offer.”