A day in the life of… Michael Salliss

This month the GradMail team caught up with, a Commercial Graduate working for Thales’s transportation business in London, to try and find out what doing his job looks like.

Every day  has been incredibly busy for me since I joined in September 2014. The role itself consists of various contract reviews and amendments, covering a huge number of agreements that the transportation business has with its customers. This is interesting as it has enabled me to understand exactly what the work that Thales does in transportation is and the potential new opportunities in the future, as well as offering extensive internal and external customer engagement.

Being based in London is great, the office very modern and a nice environment to work in and the location is everything you would expect, there is lots of stuff to do and the working atmosphere is fantastic. It’s nice to have a chance to pop down to St Katherine Docks (a 5 minute walk) in the summer at lunchtime!

The Commercial function itself is a very rewarding role in which to work in, and offers the chance to take on responsibility at an early stage. However, the predominantly legal nature of the role and the specific knowledge that this requires was a steep learning curve for me, having never studied law myself. Being immersed in such a role from the start was a bit like being thrown in the deep end, but thankfully there is a vast wealth of experience in the team which has helped me along the way. So far the Graduate Development Programme has taught me that you don’t necessarily have to have what would seem to be the traditional background for a role, so don’t be put off like I was, if something seems technical. Give it a go, but the secret is to know when to ask for help!