Case studies : Principal Consultant at Customer Systems: Richard

Richard is a Principal Consultant at Customer Systems. Before joining the company he studied a BSc in Management Sciences from Loughborough University.

I'm from a business background, but I'm glad that didn't put me off applying to Customer Systems! It isn't about having loads of programming in your background: if you can break a problem down and solve it, there's no reason you can't be as successful here as someone with a Masters in Computing.

The training was tough, as I'd never seen some of the technologies before, but you get to dig around in the application and really build your understanding. I learn best when I get to do a lot of my own investigation, so it was just what I was looking for.

Having been here for a while now, I get to do requirements gathering and business meetings with stakeholders, but I also still get to do the technical stuff I really enjoy. I think I have a nice mix, and my advancement shows that the clients are happy with my work. Clients often come to me as a first point of contact on other problems, because they really trust me as an expert, which is satisfying.

I’ve recently been made Principal Consultant, so obviously the next step is Managing Consultant. At the moment I’m really focused on my current project, and I want to see it through to completion, but it’s great to know that the opportunity is there for me to strive for in future.

When I’m at clients’ sites, I notice that the roles and levels I’m dealing with on a daily basis are much higher than graduates of my age that I’ve come across. As a consultant at Customer Systems there is much higher responsibility and with it much higher respect. It’s brilliant- a job that gets you straight in there.