Well, what a first week at Tavistock. Definitely a week I will never forget!

I joined the TMT team at Tavistock on the 16 March 2020 and I can tell you, when people refer to this “uncertain time”, I understand. I really do.

Starting a new job, in a new field of work, in a new place was always going to be intensive. I had to get to grips with a new fast-paced working environment in the City of London, meet lots of new colleagues and clients, and relocate from Hampshire but the reality of starting work in the early days of a pandemic changes nearly everything!

On the Monday I started there were only eight people in the office, the rest having already started working from home. A welcome lunch still featured on the agenda but my new colleagues tell me that the restaurant was much quieter than it usually is. A busy afternoon but it all stopped to watch Boris Johnson’s speech asking us to all work from home, if possible. So, I packed up my newly issued work gear, not knowing when I would next be back in the office or when I would get to meet the rest of the Tavistock team in person.

With the chaos in the financial markets and uncertainty for so many businesses, I could have been left to my own devices with no one having time for any form of induction, but my new colleagues have been brilliant. They have been great at talking through market dynamics, client needs and requesting pieces of research all of which are helping me get up to speed with the market environment, regulations and industry terminology, and have also started including me in projects and client calls – really making me feel like I am already part of the Tavistock team.

We all know these are extraordinary times with huge challenges and working through this will be difficult, whether you have been in the industry for 25 years or five days. Needs must and I am up for a challenge, (albeit rather different to what I was anticipating during the interview process back in January). I don’t know what the next few weeks or months will bring, but I cannot do much about what I cannot control.  I can, however, continue to learn, use my common sense and support the team and our clients, as effectively as possible.