Iain Mackinnon tells One Dundee about his experience with the Ambitious Futures graduate scheme.
My first placement was at the University of Dundee where I worked on the undergraduate prospectus. This involved gathering content from academics, students, graduates and employers and working with professional photographers and printers on the design for both the printed and online versions [side note: I legitimately used this as an example of a project that uses both waterfall and agiile project management methodology to get my new job; it was genuinely useful!]
My second placement was working at the University of Glasgow on their enormous campus redevelopment programme. I had the opportunity to be involved in the design of new learning spaces, complete a space study and set up a furniture showcase at a conference.
My final placement was back at the University of Dundee, working in Strategic Planning. I worked across three projects: a plan to increase our rankings in international league tables; the development of the new University Strategy; and the rollout of the new Workload Allocation Model.
After completing the Ambitious Futures Graduate Scheme I moved to London to work in the UK Parliament’s Digital Service. Initially I worked as a User Engagement Lead helping rollout multi-million IT infrastructure programmes as well as supporting Parliament’s cyber security operation. I was also given the chance to work on the 2017 General Election. I have recently begun working as a Senior Project Manager, helping to modernise Parliament’s ageing physical and digital archives thus allowing greater access to them for both parliamentarians and members of the public.
The scheme is now open and accepting applications for a September 2020 start. Find out more and submit your application online.