As I mentioned in my previous entry, the apprentices and I were scheduled to visit the Rathbones office in London. On Thursday 5th February, we did just that.
My alarm had to be set for 6 o’clock, which would allow me to be on the 07:47am train and in the office for 10:30am. When we got there, I was very impressed by the location to say the least! We were given a tour around the office by HR representatives. I couldn’t believe how client orientated the office was, with nearly an entire floor dedicated to meeting rooms.
Next on the agenda was a meeting with Hugh Adlington, who is an Investment Manager who has line management responsibilities for other investment management terms and also chairs the Strategic Asset Allocation committee. It was a really good opportunity to hear more about what he does, as well as asking him questions about the different tasks he is faced with, the pressures he is under and how he finds the right balance between his different responsibilities.
After that, the apprentices were split into two groups and my group had presentations from Mark Smith, Manager of Middle Office London, and Matt Hawkins, RPAS Financial Planning Director. As Mark was originally from Liverpool and moved down to London and I saw the opportunity to ask him about moving to the capital. He expressed that it is a bit of a culture shock at first due to the hectic public transport but you soon get used to it. This response meant that I'm not ruling out a future move to London to further my career if any opportunities arise further on down the line.
We then had a chat with RIM Management Committee. The chat was relatively informal and there was a relaxed atmosphere. It allowed us to meet many senior figures from the company. I noticed how fascinated many of them were with the apprenticeship scheme and how successful it has been so far. They were also very interested in what we had to say about the scheme, which was a good chance to voice our opinions.
The afternoon consisted of a tour around ‘Financial London’. This was very informative and was a great way of seeing how business in London started and progressed. We started by finding out how shares in companies, commodities and insurance all started in three coffee shops located in (Ex)Change Alley. We then moved on to seeing the head offices of some of the biggest organisations in London before finishing the tour outside the Bank of England.
The day then unfortunately came to an end, leaving us to make our way back to Euston to catch our 5:00pm train back to Lime Street. I believe the day overall was a huge success! I hope I get the opportunity to visit the London office at some point in the near future.
