On September 5th, it will be my one year anniversary with Cadbury Schweppes. One of the other grads in the office started on the same day, so I'm considering buying a cake and various party decorations for our desks. She doesn't seem too keen, but I'm excited. If there's one way to get yourself noticed, it's attaching streamers to your desk and offering cake to people...
Since my last blog, I've been safely tucked up in Maple Cross Towers (though whether three floors justifies me calling it "towers" is questionable), working away as an Assistant Brand Manager. My portfolio of brands is ever growing - I'm up to Creme Egg, Crunchie, Mini Eggs and Snaps now - and surprisingly enough, I'm still loving it. It's still incredibly tough, and I seem to end up in quite regular heated debates with people around the business (I like to see single mindedness as a positive trait), but I haven't stopped learning. Just when it feels like you're 100% on top of things, you get given more accountability, more projects to own, or your existing projects get transformed into something bigger. Which is what I really like about my job at the moment, there's quite a direct link between gaining experience/delivering results and being given more to do.
I've also been seeing quite a lot of the other grads in other functions recently, as I seem to be inadvertently making it my Mission to trek up to Bournville for one reason or another as much as possible. Sometimes it's work (though I normally end up sleeping on someone's couch the night before so I don't have to get up at the crack of dawn to get up there), sometime's we're just up having a laugh. A couple of us went up for a four person birthday party the other weekend, including a "B" costume theme. I went as a biscuit and someone tried to take a bite out of me in a club. I was just amazed we got into the club, given that Rollerskate Barbie couldn't stay on her feet due to her lack of skating skill...
We're also about to see a new round of grads come in, one has already started and the rest will be starting in September/October. It'll be weird not to be the 1st year anymore - I always felt like I was getting away with a bit more because I could plead inexperience. Now I'm slowly working my way towards elder of the graduate programme (thankfully very slowly), I even have a buddy! Which is crazy, why anyone would want to listen to my advice is beyond me.
On that note, I need to go book a hire car to get me up to Bournville on Thursday. Let the good times roll.
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