Career Development Day stories: passing it on

In the last of our mini series on Career Development Days, we talk to Performance Consultant Narinder Kudhail about what she’s learned from the events, and what she’s doing to help as many people as she can benefit from it.

Could you tell us a little about your current role?

I’m a Performance Consultant in Internal Audit, which means I act as a coach to some very technical teams and help them keep their focus on things like great customer service.

Before this I was based in a branch, which is an environment where your biggest priority is serving customers. We have great training and development programmes in the branches which help us provide fantastic service and to progress in our careers. But sometimes it’s a challenge keeping up with what’s happening in other parts of the business.

I loved my time in branch, and I wanted people who work there to know how many opportunities there are. After I went to the Career Development Day I saw that the team were looking for advocates, and I thought it sounded great and knew I could use the opportunity to help other people in the bank.

What did you make of the Career Development Day?

I was actually expecting it to be a bit stuffy and small, and that I’d be spending the day telling people what they needed to do to work in my team. But it wasn’t like that at all. The sessions were really interactive, the hosts asked the people who attended lots of questions, like what they could do and what their skills were. And the people at the stalls were really interested in who they were talking to, offering job shadowing or the chance to talk to more people. It was a really fun event, and I wanted other people to know what it was like. To me, that’s what it should be like when you’re thinking about your career. You should be excited about the job you do, and you should be excited about using it to get the next job you want.

‘I love sharing my successes with other people so they can succeed. Because ultimately if they succeed, I’ve succeeded’

I was really passionate about helping more people to have the great experience that I’ve had with Career Development Days. So I got in touch with a local branch manager close to where I live so I could help share with the team there what I’d learned about writing CVs and having confidence in looking and applying for jobs. The experience people in branches have of serving our customers every day is exactly what we need in every part of the bank. It gives them a real advantage; they just have to know how to make the most of it.

That sounds great! How’s it been going?

I’ve helped people improve their CVs and prepare for job interviews, sharing what I learned from Career Development Days and my own experiences. Almost all of the people I’ve helped managed to get interviews after I looked through the job advert with them and helped them connect their skills to the role. And when they went to interview – whether they got the job or not – they felt so much more confident, and even if they didn’t get it they knew they’d done everything they could.

I’m not one of these people who learns something and wants to keep it to herself. I love sharing my successes with other people so they can succeed too. Because ultimately if they succeed, I’ve succeeded. I really genuinely want people to feel happy at work, and knowing there are options to help you take you career forwards is fantastic for the bank. There’s a job that will motivate you and make you happy, and I want to help people find it. Someone spent 20 minutes with me looking at my CV, and I’ve been able to pass those 20 minutes on many times over.