Irish Enterprise IT Company opens office in Amsterdam and announces 30 new jobs
Irish Ambassador to the Netherlands officially opens Aspira’s new European office
14 February 2019: Aspira, the wholly Irish-owned consulting and IT project specialists, today announced the opening of their new mainland Europe Headquarters in Amsterdam and the creation of 30 new high-level jobs. The award-winning company experienced accelerated growth, more than doubling in sales over the past three years, driven by a number of new project wins.
The 30 new jobs, which will be based primarily at the new Amsterdam office with some in Aspira’s Irish offices in Dublin and Cork, will be rolled out over 18 months and will include project management, business analysis, data analysis and software development roles. This office opening is in response to the rapidly expanding client base in Europe and Middle East.
The Irish Ambassador to the Netherlands, His Excellency Kevin Kelly, will officially open Aspira’s new state-of-the-art headquarters in Strawinskylaan, Amsterdam today.
Speaking about the jobs announcement, Aspira-Europe Managing Director Peter Ryan said, “The Netherlands is in the EU Top 3 for IT and project management and demand for these services is expected to grow significantly over the next four years. However, Dutch business leaders have identified that the shortage of good IT professionals represents a major challenge to that growth. Aspira bring deep bench-strength and experience in both IT and project management to the Netherlands and so this announcement of 30 new jobs is very welcome news.”
Aspira Group CEO, Pat Lucey said: “The new roles we are announcing today will strengthen our delivery capability and our management team at a time when we are expanding rapidly to international markets. We forecast overall sales to double again over the next three years, with international sales growing at an even faster pace.”
Aspira was established in 2007 and currently employs over 100 people. Its accelerated growth has seen it named in the Financial Times Top One Thousand Growth Companies in Europe for the past two consecutive years. Mr Lucey continued, “For twelve years we have consistently provided best-in-class enterprise solutions for our clients, ensuring their delivery on time and on budget. We will continue to offer a world-class service that will address our clients’ growing needs for deep technical knowledge, data analytics and an Agile approach to delivery.”
Aspira caters for a diverse, international client base, including leading players in the IT, financial services, pharma/med devices, healthcare and energy sectors. Aspira is supported by Enterprise Ireland, the state agency for developing Irish business globally, which has provided the company with international market entry assistance and will work closely with the company to accelerate its position in global markets over the next phase of its growth.
For further information, or to arrange an interview with Peter Ryan or Pat Lucey please contact:
We invited Niamh Kelly to write this guest opinion piece about her personal experiences as an independent consultant.
A job for life… career stability… security… these mantras are often bandied about as the holy grail of #careergoals. I disagree with all of these largely because they don’t exist. Job security, predictable income, Ts & Cs and the ability to plan far into the future based on holding on to a job is a mirage which is long gone. Teachers, lawyers & the current nurses strike are hard proof examples.
I noticed the trend toward moving away from a Job for Life in the early noughties fresh out of university and jumped on board as an early adopter of skill survival but it has taken many years and a huge recession for the penny to drop for many others. Some unfortunately are still in denial.
The term job-hopping is used in a negative way to describe people who move from company to company. There is a huge problem with subscribing to this mind-set for you, the employee, as you will get stuck, you will operate from fear and you will make decisions based on external opinions instead of listening to your gut and trusting yourself. As an independent consultant, I job-hop for a living although I prefer the term client-hop and once you move past all of this external noise you will find that it is easier to design your life and carve out your career in a way that works for you. This is a day, a week, several months in my life.
When the last recession hit in 2008, by 2009, I experienced my first redundancy, it was devastating but an extremely well disguised gift. There were some huge life lessons I learned quickly and brutally:
1. Life gets in the way and even if you do everything right, the worst can still happen. It’s not you it’s them.
2. Always be prepared financially for the rug to get pulled from under you.
3. Be prepared to mobilise quickly in all types of economies – hone your skills, diversify if necessary and be flexible to change. If you are not flexible you will break like a stubborn tree in a hurricane.
Another redundancy came a few years after that in my favourite company to date with our Dublin HQ closure and that was almost more brutal than the first as I was emotionally invested in the company and my team. The grief was different this time; I mourned what was lost but I was not afraid of surviving the future. I knew I had what it took, I‘d done it before and this time I had even more skills, more experience and higher resilience. I felt secure in knowing that I had cleverly branched out into the technology sector which was thriving and changing the working landscape. Instinctively, I did not put roots down in my next permanent position, I saw an opportunity to expand my skillset even further in Tech Project Management and start-up environments and sought out a way to step outside my comfort zone deliberately. I took on difficult tasks whether I liked them or not as a way to stretch my professional legs. I don’t like spreadsheets but I became highly Excel competent, not a fan of public speaking but workshopped more ideas, improvements and knowledge sharing than I can count and while I’m no Mathematician if you put a € in front of anything I can negotiate, manage and track it to the nearest cent even with a moderately bad hangover. I can plan, strategise and forecast with the best of them although I always liked doing that so it doesn’t count.
As I was outgrowing my last permanent job the feeling of being stuck was gnawing at me but I had now become a little too comfortable and wasn’t feeling under pressure to make any swift decisions. The universe had other plans, it threw up an opportunity for me to buy a very unique and special home which was meant for me, I already owned a property and initially I didn’t think it would be possible. I somehow made it happen within nine days and when I came up for air on day 10, incredulous that I pulled this off, I suddenly realised the scale of financial responsibility I now had to bear which hadn’t even entered my thoughts two weeks previously. This could have been overwhelming but I went along with it.
Several months later, I left the permanent job after being there for a few years, it was time, and I took the leap and branched out as an Independent Consultant and so far it has been a great move for me. I work when I decide or when the right contract lands and I take time to travel in between. I am also a landlord and while I employ a company to manage the property, I often find myself managing them. I am designing my life. In the last two years, I have visited eight countries on four different continents and have three more pencilled in later this year. Consulting gives me flexibility I would not get in a permanent role and I have upskilled with every contract and stretched myself professionally in a way that I was hindered from doing in permanent employment. Best of all, I have increased my income exponentially which allows me the freedom to travel, pick good contracts and live my best life. I rely heavily on my network to connect me with good clients and you have to be prepared to walk in somewhere on day one and instantly take the reins to keep the show on the road. You also need to have the ability to propose frameworks for improvements and change. I have recently coupled up with Aspira through an old network contact of mine who I worked with several years ago. I sent him a speculative email on a sunny afternoon last summer and we met for a coffee within days to chat and see if we could do some business together and now we are. While I remain independent, working with our latest client running a huge internal hardware and software migration for 700 users has been fantastic and I now have the support of the Aspira family behind me to help me with any challenges I may come up against. They are a valuable support system for me and also act as knowledge pool that I can tap into at any time to help me to help our client, it’s a win/win/win.
So what about company loyalty, I hear you wonder, she hasn’t mentioned that at all, isn’t that important? I know that loyalty and longevity are two completely different animals. I still have huge loyalty to the Senior Management teams and Founders of the two companies I mention above. I continue to be friends with and mentored by these individuals, many years on, and I believe that many of us will work together again in the future – lads if you’re reading this you know who you are. I have huge respect and admiration for these people and have learned so much from how they handled the challenges as well as the successes. I have remained longer in other companies where we didn’t quite fit but I had a purpose, I delivered it and moved on. Relationships and positive networking are hugely important if you are taking this path, as the old saying goes, it’s all about who you know – but then to stay doing this and make a good living from it you have to be good at what you do.
Will I remain independent forever? Who knows, but right now I am incrementally maximising my skills & income level and pushing myself to achieve what I envision for myself, in the shortest amount of time – patience has never been my virtue. If I create a good solid design now then I should be able to withstand whatever the economy throws up at me in the future and it’s exciting and comforting for me to know that Aspira are part of this journey.
I’ve worked as a Project Manager for over 20 years, predominately using the traditional predictive approach, better known as Waterfall. This discipline has five distinct phases: Initiating, Planning, Executing, Controlling and Closing. Each phase is dependent on the previous one being achieved.
The Project Manager is fundamental in leading and guiding the team to achieve successful completion of each phase. This involves detailed planning and scheduling, focusing on dependencies, comprehensive risk assessments and an agreed budget to achieve strategic objectives and goals. The overall scope of the project is agreed prior to the execution phase with key milestones throughout each phase agreed and documented.
The Project Manager is ultimately accountable to deliver on time and within budget. However, there can be many surprises along the way that will impact the timeline, scope or budget and which threaten those key milestones.
The risk of scope change exists for any project and – if not managed properly – can significantly increase the complexity, causing a project to fail or run well over budget. It can happen as a result of poor due diligence during the initiation phase or a change in requirements. Managing the scope is key for any Project Manager – if scope changes are allowed to happen without the PM’s oversight, the project is said to suffer from Scope Creep – uncontrolled change in the project scope.
To avoid Scope Creep, it is crucial to engage and communicate regularly with project stakeholders/sponsors. Having a common understanding of the overall project goal and what business requirement it needs to satisfy should be clearly defined in the project charter. Clearly spelling out what is not in scope can be as important as defining what is in scope.
Typically, scope changes to the overall objectives will impact project time and cost. The Waterfall approach can be quite rigid and usually requires much justification for changes with a lot of resistance to break through. It predominately follows a top-down approach and once the plan is final, it is final!
Instead, an Agile approach is intended to embrace uncertainty in the project scope, and allows the project team to take a bite-by-bite approach to delivering the project, instead of needing to devour the whole thing in one bite.
The Holy Grail for project managers is trying to get all the work done on time and within budget. However project managers encounter many challenges in the pursuit of successful completion of these objectives. Among the challenges is the strong possibility of working with stakeholders who you may have no formal authority over, but the project success hinges on their cooperation with you. In any attempt to influence key stakeholders, you need four key influencing skills:
1. Assume all are potential allies. You need to believe that the uncooperative will cooperate. If you think negative thoughts about your target, even if you don’t verbalize it, the target will sense these negative thoughts and will then shut down and close off to any influence attempts. Remember you need to suspend judgement and ask questions that do not assume negative motives.
2. Diagnose the world of the other person. If you are unclear about what matters to an important person or group, are puzzled by their resistance and assuming the worst about their motives, you may need to analyse their world carefully. Gather intelligence on people’s hot buttons, taboos and values in order to identify hooks to get on their wavelength.
3. Identify relevant currencies – in other words, what matters to them. One of the best ways to learn about a person’s currencies is to listen closely to their language. When you are tuned in, you will be amazed at how often and how repetitively people broadcast their currencies by their choice of metaphors or by the questions they ask.
4. Understand your individual workstyles. All people have a certain workstyle – a way of solving problems, dealing with others and doing their jobs. You need to understand your workstyle as well as theirs and adapt your workstyle to match theirs to increase your influence.
Using these influencing skills will help you to navigate the matrix environment, build relationships with key stakeholders and successfully achieve your objectives.
For more information please click on link: https://aspira.ie/training/
It has been an amazing year for the Aspira team. As 2018 draws to a close, we’ve reflected on some of our favourite moments. Here are some of our top highlights from 2018…
Amsterdam Office Opens
Aspira has opened its mainland European office in Amsterdam. We are excited to bring our unique brand of client centric consultancy to the Netherlands. We look forward to expanding our team in the Netherlands in the New Year, under the leadership of Peter Ryan.
New Training Courses
This year we introduced our Leadership without Authority training course, aimed at providing teams with the skills they need to lead and deliver successful projects. It has been very successful so far, with a number of organisations booking this course as part of our bespoke Aspira training for 2019. If you are looking to plan your teams’ training for 2019, contact us at training@aspira.ie
Sponsorship and CSR
Once again, Aspira continued our sponsorship of Cork City Football Club through the year. We also chose to further support business development in Ireland by sponsoring a number of awards including Private Sector Project of the Year at the National Project Awards, Top Innovator at the Docklands Business Forum Awards and Multinational of the Year category at the IT@Cork Leaders Awards. We also provided over ten thousand euros to good causes, such as Brighter Communities Worldwide, Simon, Irish Cancer Society and Down Syndrome Charities in Ireland. The funding was supplemented by efforts from our team in running the marathon as a relay team and through our BCW software project.
New Team Members
Our team has expanded significantly this year. We are delighted to welcome no board a number of new team members who will drive the company forward including Jim Blair, who is our new Director of Software Development, Jason Boyle who is providing guidance on our IT direction, Paula Good in Finance and Vikas Sahni who has joined the team as Head of Emerging Technologies. We look forward to further growing the team in 2019 and there are a number of positions currently available. If you are interested in joining Aspira, please contact careers@aspira.ie
Working Internationally
This year, we’ve been working extensively with our clients overseas. We’ve been delivering consultancy and training to organisations in Abu Dhabi, Miami, Amsterdam and more. We work with leading companies across a variety of industries including energy/utilities, IT & software, pharmaceutical, med tech, manufacturing, finance and professional services.
Awards
We are delighted to announce that Aspira was a winner in the Deloitte Fast 50 for the fifth year in a row. This placement showcases our five years of significant continued growth. This was topped by appearing in the Financial Times Top Thousand companies in Europe. We were also very proud to be shortlisted in the National Project awards in the corporate good category for our work with Brighter Communities Worldwide.
Expertise
Lastly our CEO, Pat Lucey, had the honour of holding the title of President of the Ireland Chapter of PMI this year, and receiving an award for excellence from the PMI central body in recognition of the Chapter’s achievements. Pat will continue his presidency in 2019, working with the committee to further develop and drive excellence in the project management discipline in Ireland.
The team at Aspira would like to wish our clients, colleagues and friends a very happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year.
Benjamin Franklin said, “Nothing in this world can be said to be certain, except death and taxes”.
When we consider the reliance of a business on IT systems, we can also say with certainty that, along with death and taxes, should a major IT systems outage occur, it can have a detrimental impact on your business, reputation and your customers perception. A mitigation against the potential impact of an outage is to develop and maintain a Disaster Recovery (DR) Plan.
Why develop a disaster recovery plan?
When you consider emerging phenomena such as Spyware, Phishing and Ransomware then no business that has any reliance on IT can be considered safe. Disaster recovery planning is not just for large and enterprise scale businesses, it’s for all businesses.
According to Cybersecurity Ventures, Ransomware damages reached $5 billion in 2017 and IBM reported that 70% of businesses paid to get their data back from ransomware attackers in 2016. In the case of traditional risks, research has shown that the most common causes of IT outages are Power, Human Failure and Natural Disaster with the direct costs annually running to 2.5BN dollars (IDC). It is fair to say preventative and remedial security measures such as an effective Disaster Recovery plan have now become essential.
What is disaster recovery planning?
DR planning is putting in place the measures and actions to be taken in the event of an IT systems failure to recovery those systems to an acceptable state in an acceptable timeframe. It is a component part of a company’s security profile, as well as being an essential element of a comprehensive Business Continuity Management (BCM). However, a DR plan should not be confused with BCM, which is much broader and considers not only IT but environmental as well has human impacts on a business’s ability to operate.
Disaster Recovery Challenges
When we look at what is involved in implementing a DR plan, a lot of companies struggle with two main challenges – Budget and Expertise.
No one wants to spend money on something you hope will never be used, and a lot of companies don’t have, or want to have, the expertise to plan the detail on delivering and maintain what could be a complex IT operation…….. that no one wants to ever use!
Defining a Disaster Recovery Budget
Cloud services now make the possibility of an Enterprise level DR solution at an main street price a reality for a lot of IT environments. Cloud solutions now mean that for relatively low costs (when compared to investing in hardware and onsite services) any company can have robust DR solution that provides levels of availability that would have previously been beyond reach in terms of cost.
Identifying Disaster Recovery Experts
On the challenge of expertise: Companies can now extend a Cloud service to becoming a Managed Cloud Service for Disaster Recovery. Outsourcing the setup, operation and maintenance of your entire DR requirement to an expert partner but doing it at a completely affordable price point.
What Disaster Recovery Plan do I need?
There are two concepts that you can use to determine what level of DR Plan you might need. You should look at the business processes that run your business, then look at the IT systems that these processes depend on (end to end), and define:
1. RPO: The Recovery Point Objective for the systems driving your business. Basically, if you must restore or recover and entire system – how old can the data be? This may seem obvious, but it is very important to realise that if you have a backup at 2am in the morning, what is on your backup is all your data up to 2am. If the server fails at 4pm the following afternoon and you must recover from backup, what you get back is all the data to 2am that morning. i.e. all information from then to 4pm is lost. In this example, 2am is the recovery point.
2. RTO: The Recovery Time Objective for your systems, is how long can you be without a system before your business (or the process affected) starts to become seriously impacted. For example, if you have an online ordering system and it becomes unavailable, how long can you sustain business without the system being online?
While RTO & RPO are linked, they can have different goals. i.e. you might need a system back online within 2 hours to enable business transactions, but the data can be a day old, or recovered offline as it is not urgent. Conversely, you might have an RTO of 24 hours, but the data must be no older than 15min!
Kickstarting your Disaster Recovery Plan
All businesses should now be, if not already, considering how a DR plan can form part of a security and business continuity process to safeguard operations, integrity and reputation. Managed Cloud services bring the capability of Enterprise DR solutions to all business’s. Once you have defined your reliance on IT, through a simple process of defining Recovery Point and Time Objectives, you can begin to formulate a plan to protect your IT and your business.
For more information on Disaster Recovery, or to speak to one of our expert team, contact us today.
Congratulations to the winners of the 2018 National Project Awards, which were announced on Thursday, 29 November. The National Project Awards are organised by the Ireland Chapter of PMI voluntary committee. This year, our CEO, Pat Lucey had the honour of delivering the welcome address to attendees as President of the Ireland Chapter of PMI. Pat will continue his two-year presidency next year, 2019.
The winners are as follows:
• Project Professional of the Year 2018 (sponsored by PwC) — Declan Rundle, AIB
• PMO of the Year 2018 (sponsored by Datalex)— ESB IT Services
• Public Sector Project of the Year 2018 (sponsored by IPA) — Revenue Commissioners, Customer Engagement Strategy
• Private Sector Project of the Year 2018 (sponsored by Aspira) — AIB, GDPR Programme
• Social Good – Community 2018 (sponsored by the Ireland Chapter of PMI) — Tour de Munster, Charity Cycle
• Social Good – Corporate 2018 (sponsored by AIB) — Cork Airport, Charity of the Year programme
• Distinguished Contribution to Project Management 2018 (sponsored by CORA Systems) — Ed Naughton, Institute of Project Management
Speaking about the winners, Pat Lucey said: “The National Project Awards celebrate the very best of project management, at a time when demand for project managers has never been higher, due to a turbulent global economy exacerbated in Ireland by Brexit.
“By 2027, the Project Management Institute expects that employers around the world will need nearly 88 million project managers. The quality and range of this year’s entries showcase why project management is so vital to delivering successful projects across all sectors in Irish commercial life.”
Mr Lucey added: “We would like to thank our judging panel who diligently reviewed each entry and selected those who, in their view, exemplify project management excellence in Ireland. A special thank you also to our valued sponsors for their continued support.”
The National Project Awards recognise and honour individuals, project teams and organisations that have excelled within the project management discipline. The black-tie event took place at Spencer Dock, Dublin 1 and was compered by Newstalk Business Editor Vincent Wall.
The National Project Awards 2018 is proudly supported by principal sponsor PwC, along with AIB, Aspira, CORA Systems, Datalex, Institute of Public Administration (IPA) and the Ireland Chapter of PMI.
The Ireland Chapter of Project Management Institute (PMI) is due to announce the winners of the 2018 National Project Awards, sponsored by PwC, tomorrow, Thursday, 29 November.
The National Project Awards recognise and honour individuals, project teams and organisations that have excelled within the project management discipline. The black-tie event will take place at Spencer Dock, Dublin 1.
CEO of Aspira, Pat Lucey has had the honour of being elected the President of the Ireland Chapter of PMI for 2018. Pat has worked extensively throughout the year with his committee to further promote the work of Irish project managers and drive excellence within the discipline both in Ireland and globally. The National Project Awards celebrate the very best of project management and aim to promote best practices in project management.
Aspira are also delighted to sponsor the Ireland Chapter of PMI Awards, Private Sector of the Year category.
We would like to wish finalists across all categories the best of luck on the evening.
Technology is moving at a fast pace, disrupting organisations and the ways in which have have worked for decades. When paired with other organisational challenges that encountered in daily working life, it is increasingly more difficult to drive your organisation to change to meet these needs and challenges as they arise. One way in which we can prepare for change and equip our team s with the skills they need to thrive and adapt are with agile training.
An Agile team can evolve and react more rapidly, meaning that challenges are more easily overcome and projects are delivered more successfully on an ongoing basis. Head of Training Norma Lynch shares her top three tips to create agile working teams:
1. Focus on results
Placing emphasis on the outcome and not the process drives your team to work smarter, rather than adhering to processes that may not work for the project for the sake of procedure. It also empowers your team to make their own decisions and work more efficiently to achieve their objectives.
2. Feedback
Collecting and curating feedback throughout a project ensures that you have a constant flow of communication. This helps your team to identify issues at an early stage, enabling your teams to react and change paths if required, reducing time spent and increasing team optimisation.
3. Training
If your team are lacking the basic knowledge they need to work in an agile environment, this will cause problems for projects. It’s absolutely vital that team members have knowledge of the framework and that training is provided on an ongoing basis to allow teams to develop their various skillsets within that, particularly team leads and those in senior and management roles.
At Aspira, we work to create bespoke training packages to meet all of your training requirements. From once-off group training to ongoing coaching options, we cover a variety of topics, from general project management introduction to advanced examination preparation courses. We work with manufacturers, pharmaceutical, telecoms, transport, services, and technology companies to deliver PM, business analysis, Scrum Master, Lean Six Sigma training and more.
Contact Norma to see how we can meet your training requirements for 2019 here: norma.lynch@aspira.ie
We provide training both in Ireland and onsite internationally if required.
At Aspira, we have a very diverse international team, which we believe is key to our ability to innovate and deliver the best possible solutions for our clients. We work with global companies and work alongside colleagues of many different nationalities.
Tanya Gainutdinova is from Russia and is a technical resource specialist who started working in our Dublin office this year. Tanya shares her some insights into life at Aspira, and compares and contrasts Dublin with her hometown of Kazan, Russia.
I am living in my new home in Dublin for one year now, working for Aspira, and because I enjoy sharing new perspectives and learning new ways of working myself, I thought it might be interesting to share my perspective of living and working in Dublin compared to my home town of Kazan.
Old and New
Dublin has a similar feel to my hometown in Russia – both were founded over one thousand years ago and have many historical buildings to be admired. But there are also lots of new high-tech locations such as Aspira’s Dublin office, which is in a great location in the Silicon Docklands.
Working at Aspira:
It’s been interesting to learn how business processes in Irish companies differs to Russia. My experience is that the atmosphere in Irish companies is very positive, with colleagues always willing and ready to give a helping hand. Our management team are always open to new ideas and encourage us to make suggestions.
One thing I see that the Irish and Russians have in common is the sense of humour, and wiliness not to take ourselves too seriously – having fun and a laugh with the ‘boss’ in is welcomed and typical for both countries (as long as you are getting your work done!).
Universal Interests – Food and Football
In Russia, my region is famous for its Tatar Cuisine – hearty pies, delicious baked goods and very sweet desserts are very popular.
I’ve enjoyed trying some Irish favourites and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of lamb compared to the mutton we have at home. I have now learned what ‘mutton dressed as lamb’ means! The variety of cheeses is astonishing in Ireland – Dairy products and seafood are really standout here.
Kazan hosted some matches during the recent World Cup and we all like keeping up to date with the football results. My team in Russia is Rubin Kazan although my Cork-based Aspira colleagues tell me there’s only one football team to follow:
It is great working and living in an international environment. Kazan and Dublin are very different, but we have much in common. Diversity and collaboration in the workplace helps to achieve synergy and I’m delighted to be part of the team at Aspira.
Tadhg had heard great things about Aspira before starting his internship, but never could have imagined just how nurturing an environment it would prove to be.
What are you studying in college?
I’m studying Computer Science in University College Cork. It’s a four year course, with work placement taking place in third year.
What drew you to Aspira when you were seeking an internship?
I had heard of Aspira through the UCC careers service, and after researching about them online I thought it would be a fantastic place to work. They have a history of hiring UCC students for graduate and intern positions, and I saw that they had some really interesting clients, so it was a no brainer really!
What expectations did you have before you began your internship?
I had heard from past Interns that at Aspira, you’re given a lot of responsibilities right from the beginning of your placement. A lot is expected from you, in terms of being an active employee and engaging with your co-workers. Aspira has a friendly and social environment that I was really excited to be a part of. I was also excited to put my skills to the test and see how well equipped I was to work in the industry.
What duties and responsibilities were you given initially?
I was given immense responsibility right off the bat, which I thought was fantastic. I was given charge of a project which involved finishing the development of a Web Application by myself. At first, it seemed like an incredibly daunting task, but my Manager Mary and all of my co-workers were always there in support if I ever had a question. The project involved eliciting requirements from the Client, and working with a programming language I had never used before. However, I never felt like I was in over my head with such a supportive group behind me!
Did the scope of your work change as the internship progressed?
As my internship went on, I had the opportunity to work on several other development projects, along with other areas of Aspira also. I got to work in teams with many different employees, attending meetings and tackling problems in a fast paced environment. I also got to work off site, working directly with clients in a business analysis role for a time!
Can you describe a typical day in your role?
Typically, the day would begin by emptying the dishwasher if it was your turn and putting on a pot of coffee! After greeting everyone in the office, I would settle down to work on whatever project I was currently tasked with. During the first few weeks while working on the Web Application, I would have daily meetings with my Manager, discussing what I had completed, what I was currently working on, and whatever issues I was encountering or foresaw. I would also be in contact with the Client, tailoring the application to their needs and working on any issues or bugs that had arisen.
What key things have you learned during this internship?
Good communication skills from speaking with clients and managers, along with enhancing my development skills, and realising that there is something new to be learned every day.
Has this internship made you feel as though you’re on the right career path?
Certainly! I found the work incredibly fulfilling. Finishing a project always brought immense pride and camaraderie. At times during my studies, I had doubts if I was pursuing the right career, but after working at Aspira I’m positive I chose the right path.
Do you feel more prepared for working life following your internship?
Absolutely. From knowing what will be expected of me, to knowing simple skills like teamwork and communication, and even having a proper work-life balance. I feel like I now have my head screwed on and I’m going into Industry prepared next year.
Why should someone take up an internship at this company?
Aspira is a fantastic place to intern at because you’ll learn an immense amount, all the while being in a friendly and social environment. They give you plenty of responsibilities, and match it with great support. I’m very grateful to have had the opportunity to spend 6 months there and to have learned so much.
1. You’ll never stop learning
At Aspira, training and development provision is one of our key services. We are renowned globally for excellence in Project Management and Business Analysis Training. We constantly reiterate the need for companies to train up their staff, develop new skillsets amongst their teams and empower their employees through learning. We are no exception to that rule. At Aspira, we have a company-wide focus on personal development and career enhancement through on site, internal and formal training programmes. All Aspira staff benefit from this approach.
2. Work with a connected community
will benefit from the support of your colleagues – a team of experts across a range of areas such as Development, Cloud Deployment, Senior Project Management and Business Analysis. Our collaborative approach to work is further bolstered by the opportunity to work in multi-experienced teams to help deliver exceptional projects for our clients.
We have a very present management team who are always nearby to point you in the right direction and offer their advice and support. Aspira staff also have a hands-on approach to companywide matters, having their say in a number of broader business aspects. The only limits at Aspira are the ones you set for yourself!
3. Flexibility and rewards
Our diversity means that we work with a new way of thinking. Our teams enjoy flexible working to allow for personal circumstances and family. Working for aspira also means flexibility in the clients you work with. We work with some of the best organisations in the country across both the private and public sector, in the country. The work is always exciting and never boring!
Our staff are also offered a number of other benefits such as pension, healthcare, training allowance, and paid holidays. Not to mention that our team is considered by many to be a family of sorts.
4. Diversity
Aspira is a diverse, international company. We have people from over 15 different nationalities building their careers with Aspira and we work with global leaders around the world. We offer opportunities to work globally and work on international assignments, so if you’re looking for a new challenge, Aspira might just be the place for you.
Author: Russell Moore, HR & Resourcing Manager, Aspira
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