Baillie Gifford & Co

• Name: Gemma Barkhuizen
• Role: Investment Research
• Joined: 2017
• University: University of Durham
• Degree: Modern History MA

BROADENING HORIZONS
Before I joined Baillie Gifford, I had secured PhD funding, but I had reservations. I wanted to learn different things and realised that carrying on in academia would mean learning about one thing in more detail. I knew I’d find this frustrating, but the Baillie Gifford role was different. It talked about intellectual curiosity and discussion. This was more like me. The role seemed to be exactly what I hoped academic life would be – broadening my horizons.

TRANSPARENT APPLICATION
The application process was my opportunity to explore whether this was the right career choice. I went into the interviews hoping to ask questions to see if the role was right for me. Everyone was very open to this and seemed as keen as I was to ensure I was making the right choice. Rather than ask standard interview questions, the process was more like an honest conversation. After that, I knew Baillie Gifford was a good fit.

REAL DIVERSITY
I think anything you study could help you in this career. There’s no rigid skill set and no one-way of working. For Baillie Gifford, it makes sense to have intellectual diversity and it’s what differentiates the firm from others. To me, it’s clear in team discussions that engineering and science graduates approach stock reports in a very different way to arts and humanities students. And it’s exactly this diversity that’s useful to the team, because if you all think differently, there’s a much greater chance you’ll spot opportunities that others could miss.

GROWING CONFIDENCE
At this stage, my team are selecting deliberately diverse companies for me to research to help with my learning and development. I’ve looked into oil services, the spirits industry, telecoms, confectionary and renewable energy. It’s wonderful learning so much in such a short space of time and it’s really helped me to develop my confidence.

• Name: Sean Devine
• Role: Business Operations
• Joined: 2016
• University: University of Aberdeen
• Degree: Petroleum Geology

TRANSFERABLE SKILLS
When I was in my final year of university, I realised that a job in the Oil and Gas industry wasn’t for me, however, I had picked up a lot of transferable skills from my degree. I looked at a few graduate programmes and saw that Baillie Gifford’s Business Operations scheme offered a unique opportunity to rotate through a number of different areas of the business. It was a chance to use my skills and to find out what I really enjoyed doing.

VARIETY
So far, I have had placements in a number of different departments, ranging from Client Administration and Dealing to Settlements and even Systems. There’s been a huge variety of work and things to learn. Whilst I was in the Systems department I was involved in testing new software applications which were about to be launched, so I wrote test scripts and led project meetings.

MAKING CONTACTS
One of the most challenging things about the scheme, but also one of the most enjoyable, is switching between departments. You join a team and build good relationships but before you know it, you’re off to your next secondment. However, this means that I’ve already made a lot of contacts around the business. You also get a lot of support. We have our mentors and a line manager, and we also have a lot of contact with graduate trainees from past years.

WELCOMING CULTURE
There’s a flat culture in the firm and it’s not unusual to be sitting next to a manager in your team. The company also organises a lot of social events, such as the Annual Dinner Dance and nights out for all the graduate trainees. I’ve recently got back from an Outward Bound course, where we spent four days completing team building tasks and working on our own self-development.

• Name: Rianne Rafferty
• Role: Application Development
• Joined: 2016
• University: Queens University
• Degree: Computing and Information Technology

TRANSPARENT TRAINING
I found the position advertised on the university careers service website. It stood out to me as I’d always enjoyed web development and saw I’d be working with C#. I was also really excited about the technology that Baillie Gifford use. And even though I didn’t have experience of all of it, the training was well explained, so I was reassured that they would teach me any additional technical skills required.

HANDS-ON LEARNING
After three months of initial training we started our graduate project. This was an opportunity to see a project through from start to finish, everything from gathering requirements and full stack development through to testing and deployment. Our project was to build an application for a code release form, replacing an old system. It’s fantastic to have already created something that people are using on a daily basis throughout the department.

DEVELOPING SKILLS
Teamwork and communication skills are key here. We work in an Agile project environment and have daily stand up meetings to discuss our progress. Another vital skill is problem solving. A requirement comes in and you have to think ‘why is that being asked?’ Is there a better solution? It’s important to question whether they need something new, or whether they can use an existing application to achieve their aim. I consider myself a developer rather than a programmer.

CULTIVATING CAREERS
There’s a real learning culture at the firm. We all get the chance to study for the IOC qualification, (Investment Operations Certificate), which Baillie Gifford fully supports. There’s a joke here that nobody leaves and you can see why – they treat you so well! Social activities include the Dinner Dance, the Office Outing (where you can choose from 20 different activities from chocolate making to mountain biking) and Christmas parties, as well as lots of graduate trainee get togethers.

• Name: Rob Louth
• Role: Technical Infrastructure
• Joined: 2017
• University: Manchester Metropolitan University
• Degree: Computer & Network Technology

INCREDIBLE TRAINING
The training is abundant and second-to-none. In the first three months, we had technical training on things like databases and aspects of SQL. We also have soft skills training on networking, assertiveness and presenting. After my degree, it was really refreshing to do something different and learn such diverse skills. Since the induction I’ve also had comprehensive training on Palo Alto firewalls and Microsoft System Centre Configuration management.

NEW CHALLENGES
When I first joined the Data Centre & Operations team, there was lots of technology that I had never used before. However, my manager was supportive and allowed me time to research and ask any questions about the new technologies. I then led a project to set up new video conferencing systems. I’d never worked with that technology before, so it was great to be given the responsibility of rolling it out.

CONCEPT TESTING
Every day here holds something new and interesting. A recent highlight was doing some concept testing with one of my team leaders. In simple terms, we took some new technology that Baillie Gifford are thinking of adopting and tried to break it. It’s part of the process we do here to make sure this is something Baillie Gifford really wants to implement. It was challenging but exceptionally rewarding to know our tests will decide if the firm chooses to invest in this technology.

EXPLORING NEW IDEAS
With every new project, I learn something new. When I was on the Service Desk, I was part of a project to role-out new iPads to all the firm’s users. This involved explaining the new features to over 200 people. I’ve also been part of a much bigger project to install a completely new cutting-edge infrastructure throughout Baillie Gifford. I’ve been here just under a year and the amount I’ve been able to learn has really exceeded my expectations.