Appraisal Week

I am now nearing the end of my fourth month at Rathbones, and have just over two months left on the Dividends team before I move to the Transfers department for six months. Even though I am looking forward to learning more about the industry and how different teams in Rathbones work, a big part of me would quite happily stay on this team as a permanent member, which is a credit to the people on the team more than anything.

For the last two weeks our team has had appraisals, which is a performance review meeting with your manager that looks at ways to motivate you and to improve performance. Everyone in my team has now completed their appraisals with our manager, except for me…

Well, kind of.

Instead, I have had a three month probation review, which in effect is like a monthly appraisal for the first three months to check how you are doing and also to see if you suit the job to the correct level.

Thankfully, everything went as well as I could have hoped for and I have now completed all three of my probation reviews with my manager on Dividends.

Christmas Festivities

At the end of November we had the dividends team meal at the Hannover Social Club which was a good way to mix and socialise with my colleagues on a personal level as well as a professional one. After the meal, most of our department went to the Rathbones Christmas drinks party on the top floor of the Maritime Museum which is a great venue. It was a really good way to meet people that I would never normally speak to in my company and above all I had a really good night.

I also attended the CISI Christmas drinks reception with a group of people from my company on the 12^th December – I could get used to these nights out! I met people from competitors in our industry who were really friendly and were keen to hear more about the apprenticeship scheme I am currently on at Rathbones.

Over the Christmas period I chose to work most of the month, only taking the 27^th off in my annual leave (and of course public holidays such as Christmas day and New Years day). Even though I am accustomed to long holidays, having only been in full time education just over six months ago, I actually enjoyed this month. The mood in the office was good and there were plenty of social events taking place so I’m glad that I experienced it (and also I’ve been able to carry four days of holiday that I didn’t use over to this year!)