The Fujitsu Graduate program has helped me greatly in developing my career and also personally in term of my own confidence in my abilities to perform and learn. The Graduate program was challenging and often encouraged you to do tasks that you didn’t think you were ready for yet. At the time it is very daunting but if you persevere, work hard and have a good supportive team behind you then you can achieve whatever is put in front of you. The saying ‘you need to get comfortable being uncomfortable’ is very true when trying to develop and grow your career.
My average day to day tasks included managing the CRM tool for a number of customers, working on tenders, managing bids, attending training sessions with both Fujitsu and partners and sitting in on customer meetings and calls.
The coolest experience I had within my Graduate Program was being sent to our Head Office in Japan for 2 weeks to attend a regional sales training course with 15 other colleagues from our offices around the globe.
My biggest challenge has been learning to not always instantly say yes to having a task or job done by a specific timeline or date. Where this has become an issue for me in the past is that I have agreed to get something done by a certain time period without really understanding all of the steps needed to complete the task. You can sometimes end up setting yourself to inadvertently fail. That was a lesson I learnt the hard way and the best way to help rectify the situation is to be honest as soon as you realise that it is an unrealistic timeline. That way you and the respective parties can work together to figure out the next step forward as soon as possible.
Starting your career through a Graduate Program I found extremely helpful. The colleagues that you will be working with will know that you are most likely fresh out of university and that this is most likely your first ‘real job.’ Because of this they are happy to take the time to explain how things work and operate both internally and within the industry. So my advice would be to take advantage of the time that you are a ‘Graduate.’ Ask how things work and why and don’t be afraid to ask what you might consider a simple or stupid question.