A Day in the Life... Mike Duncan

Mike joined the Communications team as a business graduate for Ground Transportation Systems (GTS) in July 2013, and is based at our Quadrant House office in London. The GradMail team asked Mike to give an idea of his typical working day.

“The first thing I learnt from working here, as clichéd as it sounds, is that due to our diverse product range and the wide variety of communication channels we use, there isn’t really a ‘typical working day’ at Thales. In my role, I am responsible for a number of internal and external channels. From intranet news stories through to the creation of customer-focused brochures, I work to promote key messages and campaigns which we set with help from the wider business. The look and feel of a campaign can change drastically hour to hour as we work with many different people and we must take their feedback into consideration. Individual communications will also appear very differently depending on the target audience.

"My day usually begins by checking emails in our Transportation Communications inbox; I ensure that any enquiries or questions are answered quickly and accurately. As a team, we try to ensure our communication works two-ways, and actively encourage feedback and commentary from the GTS community.

"Recently, we have organised a number of All Employee Briefings for GTS. These sessions are hosted by the Executive Board. They have key messages to communicate and it is our job to work with them to ensure that these messages are delivered in a clear and relevant way. These activities have given me exposure to different areas of the business unit. This is particularly important in GTS as we are spread across 12 sites, not including our employees who work on customer bases.

"Another part of my role consists of helping to organise stands and monitor attendance at external events. I was recently responsible for the ‘in-event’ management of a stand at Metrorail 2014, an internationally attended transport-based trade event in London. This proved to be a great opportunity to work with senior members of our business. In addition, it gave me the chance to network with other key businesses and personalities within the industry, such as Network Rail, Siemens and even The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson!”