How did the Code-Switch programme help you to get your current job?

The Code-Switch programme directly helped me to secure my current role as a business development manager at Neuronostics. Some ex-university colleagues had established a spin-out company based on their research. They had some knowledge and resource gaps in their business and knew I was doing the Code-Switch programme so approached me to do some consultancy for them for four months on a part-time basis. I agreed to do the work and I went into that consultancy project thinking ‘I know what to do here’. I followed the entire Code-Switch consultancy process, right from initiating the project, engaging the client to understand their requirements, and producing a Project Initiation Document, through to evaluating the project at the end.

For them, I think it was probably a bit of a belt and braces approach and they were not necessarily expecting to receive this nice, really well-formulated document setting out in detail the objectives we’d agreed upon and how I proposed to achieve these. They were able to see clearly what I was proposing, enabling them to say yes, we’re really happy with that or actually let’s tweak this slightly. So, in the long-run, it helped them massively because they knew, and we could all agree, exactly what they were getting and what they weren’t getting.

I think it gave them confidence that I could function outside of the university environment. Up until that time, they had only known me as a researcher but now they saw me operating confidently in another role because I had a process to follow, the Code-switch consultancy process, and that is what gave them confidence in me.

If I was to pick one major learning experience from the Code-Switch programme, I would say it was to do with teamwork. I had always thought I was quite good at working in a team – in my research project at the university, I had collaborators and I had a mentor that I would check in with every couple of weeks. But, when it came down to it, actually working in the Code-Switch team was a completely different scenario to anything else I’d ever been exposed to.

In the Code-Switch programme, we were jointly responsible for producing the outputs so, if we were creating a single document, we had to work on it together at the same time. You couldn’t do different bits individually and then stitch them together as that doesn’t work. Learning how to work effectively together in a team was fundamentally important and something I had never had to do properly before in practice.

I also think there was value in having to do the cold-calling during the Code-Switch project. I’m finding in my role now that I have to do it here too and it’s not scary and it’s not hard but it does seem that way until you get used to it. So actually just having to do it in a fairly low-risk consultancy programme was a really good way to practice.

It is definitely the practical experience you gain from spending several months actually delivering a project from start to end, figuring out what the client wants right through to submitting your research to them, producing a business report, and then evaluating the project. That practical experience was the real difference between this and any other programme.I’ve never left other training programmes, whether it be about leadership or a particular technical skill, with the confidence that I could actually go away and do it because they lack the element of practical experience. The difference here is that when I was given a project to do in real life after completing the Code-Switch programme, I knew what to do because I’ve been through the process and I’ve seen the pitfalls and overcome them and that has been so valuable in my work.

Do it! For me, it’s clear because I’ve got a job directly as a result of doing the programme. Yes, it was hard work. You know, I had to spend some time in the evenings and sometimes weekends, but I’ve got a job that I really enjoy at the end of it, so it’s absolutely worth it.

But, not only that, I learned so much. I had attended seminars, or the odd workshop at university about consulting but I still had no idea when it came down it about what was required, how a research project would work in consultancy, or how you’d get consulting work, what you’d have to do day-to-day. But at the end of the Code-Switch project, I not only had a really good idea about what it involves, but it meant that I had the confidence to then go and do it on my own and actually do a consultancy piece of work. It was hard work but absolutely worth it and a really, really valuable experience.