Yesterday marked exactly one month since I started my year long placement as an application developer at JP Morgan Chase (in Bournemouth). Never have I had to learn so much in such a short amount of time. Coffee, headaches and ready meals were prevalent during the past four weeks. All that aside, it has been a tremendous experience until now, my heart goes out to the summer interns who only have 5 weeks left. Sucks to be you. So this is an opportunity for me to share with you what it’s really like working in technology and how it differs from what we are taught in university (the answer is A LOT!) When I was looking for placements last year, I made it a point to ask my friends in third year about their experiences on a placement, however it is often very hard to imagine what it is like until you actually experience it for yourself. There is no template experience, everyone’s is different, from what I’ve already gathered, many of the interns at JPMC are doing very different things in different teams, so it really just depends on your situation. That said, there are common themes that arise wherever you are, having to learn a lot in a short time span or being pushed to make as many friends and professional relationships as you possibly can. Again, this is just my experience and may very well not apply to some or most people, don’t take it as standard, I’m sure the culture/environment would be extremely different working in a technology company like Google or Microsoft.
Learning at Work
The way we learn at university and JPMC differ immensely. The most significant difference is that at work we are encouraged to ask questions as much as possible.
“There are no stupid questions” – Common phrase at work
I spent most of my first 2 weeks walking up to all of my colleagues asking “why?”. By the end of every day I would have compiled a list of around 20 questions on things I did not understand (including, but not limited to, ACRONYMS. More on that later). They were all friendly and helpful every time, stopping what they were doing to give me a run through on something they’ve probably done a thousand times. Asking questions is also one of the best ways to network and get yourself out there, even better if you go up to someone and ask them about their LOB (Line of business). This shows that you are taking an interest in what they do which means they will appreciate the gesture all the more, even if they cannot help you at that time. People will usually find some time during the week to show you what they do at work.
It goes without saying that there is no need to ask questions that you can find the answers to else where or with a quick Google search. “Who’s the CEO?” and such questions are a waste of people’s time. The 20 questions I used to compile at the end of a day arose after hours of reading through documentation of applications I will be using. So it is important to take the initiative and try and learn/solve problems yourself before taking it to someone else.
“There are 2 ways to learn. Reading and speaking to people.” – Jamie Dimon
“What you know, is never as important as who you know” – Quote from a blog post I read
That last quote annoyed me the first time I read it. How can it be true? How can knowing people replace knowledge? I am now realising how true this is. Speaking in terms of opportunity, instead of trying to open all the doors yourself, get people to open them for you. If you try to be an expert at everything you will fail. US AirForce General Welsh once said in a speech that everyone he commands is better than him at something, some are even better leaders than him, but through them he learns and earns their respect, which in turn means that he can utilise their combined skill-set to achieve things one person cannot.