I joined Principle One in August 2021 after finishing an Integrated Masters in Natural Sciences (specialising in Physics); before this I completed two 10-week summer internships with Principle One in 2019 and 2020. This was a great way to get to know the company and experience the work that they do. From these internships, I was sure that I wanted to return to Principle One after my degree due to the great culture and company values.
Since joining Principle One, I have worked almost exclusively on a single client project. This has allowed me to become a valued member of the team and shape my role into something that I find really interesting. I am currently leading on the security side of the project which involves managing security tasks across the project and enabling experts to provide advice and guidance. This has given me a lot of insight into security issues, which will be very useful for future projects, and I have gained confidence and been given a lot of responsibilities.
I work a mixture of at home and in the office (as well as some days on the project site). When I am working from home, I will usually log on between 8:30 and 8:45. I will spend the first part of my day catching up on emails and preparing for the day ahead, while having my breakfast and a cup of tea. At 9am, I have a catch-up call with the Principle One team that are working on the project. It is great to have a group of people from Principle One all on the same project in the same area, so that we can have these regular catch-ups as well as weekly office days. In these calls we raise what we have done, what we have planned and any areas where we need assistance. It is great to have these chances to check in, especially when working from home. It is a nice way to start the day with a bit of a chat, and make sure you are clear on your direction for the day.
At 9:30am, I have a meeting with the technical team on the project to ensure that we are aligned, and all security tasks are being managed. In my role I get involved in multiple parts of the project and interact with the majority of the team.
In the afternoon, I have a workshop on the project site, so I spend the rest of the morning preparing for this.
At midday, I have my lunch and travel to the project site for the afternoon workshop. It is great to have these meetings in person with members of the project outside of Principle One, so that we can socialise as a team and work more collaboratively.
This workshop involved members of the project team, partners and experts to provide advice and guidance. These types of workshops are usually very full-on, as it is a useful time to make lots of decisions whilst everyone is in the same room.
After the workshop, I get the train home and use this time to consolidate my notes and update any relevant people on the outcomes of the workshop. At the end of a busy day like this, I also like to take some time to note any lessons learnt, and determine if these would be useful to feed back to Principle One. For example, the methods used to run a workshop that involved people with potentially conflicting views could be useful to members of Principle One when they are running workshops in the future. This knowledge can be shared on the Principle One confluence page, or at one of the community groups, such as the Business Analysis community.
