“On discovering that I had been assigned to Alex Picot Trust for my year-10 Trident work placement, I decided to look at the website and it had a rather friendly looking team. I was reassured with the fact that there was only a small number of team members, and it wasn’t going to be a large firm where I was just known as just the ‘Trident work experience student’.
I was extremely nervous at first, meeting new people, learning new things, long working days, challenging tasks but I was put at ease when I was greeted with smiley, welcoming, considerate and approachable people, that I would at the end of my trident experience call my coworkers.
I regarded myself quite lucky, that compared to my many of my friends, every day I was greeted with a warm ‘hello Willow, how are you?’ from various of my coworkers and smiles all around, when I strolled in during the mornings.
Day 1, the start of my two week placement.
“I was put to the test with a rota of the various teams, which Melissa Gordon had kindly arranged for me, allowing me to experience the different teams that are the foundation of Alex Picot Trust.
On Monday, I had a morning with Executive Assistant Hannah McKenzie, who introduced me to the world of controlling the directors’ diaries and keeping everyone organised and up to date with events. Everything was superbly colour coded and extremely organised which was extremely enjoyable for me!
This provided a snippet of what behind the scenes were like for the directors’ lives: booking hotels and flights, meetings, lunches with clients and so on.
Later that day, I was given some marketing tasks by Pauline Ramskill, and we discussed whether the social media was inspiring enough to grab clients’ attention and future employees; I helped her design a ‘school-leavers’ poster for various schools around the Island and future career fairs and to make it more ‘eye-catching’. I was introduced to the world of marketing, and social engagement and the major role it plays in relationships with clients.
Day 2 and beyond.
“I was invited by the Compliance Team to discover what compliance meant, and how it’s used in trust. Wioleta gave me the insights into the world of PEPS, and Maria taught me how to use the various databases. I began to upload documents and create profiles for clients.
“The following week, Karen had kindly made an AML or anti-money laundering PowerPoint, which taught me all about fraud, money laundering, how to act if something is suspicious or not: I was taught many valuable lessons that, if I do choose a life in finance, I will already have a head start than the rest of my fellow students.
I moved around the various trust teams, all of which I was once again greeted with smiles and welcoming conversations from all. Even just a couple of days into my work experience I was already feeling like part of the team and community – and my evidently slow typing was improving!
Lasting impressions.
“For the last few days, I was assigned to the accounting team. I helped Mollie with bookkeeping for various trusts and organising the finances and inputting them onto the system to help the other teams when it came to discussing finances with clients.
My workplace has provided me with such a good insight of what life is like in a trust office in Jersey. Working at Alex Picot Trust was a joyous experience that was extremely memorable for me. I was able to learn effectively and was taught various practical skills that will help me for life, confidence, professionalism, independence and problem-solving skills. I am eternally grateful, for all the lovely people who work at Alex Picot Trust, and made my work experience so lovely.
If you’re interested in gaining work experience like Willow and have a can-do attitude and keen eye for detail, please contact our HR Manager.
