My start at TR: The Mountbatten experience

Hello everyone! I'm Shannon and I began working in the London office in 2017, after working with Thomson Reuters in New York for a year. I want to share with you a little bit about my start with TR, and how I came to the company through the Mountbatten Institute. 

What is 'Mountbatten'?

In brief, Mountbatten is an exchange-like programme offering recent graduates a chance to live, work and study in New York (for mostly Brits) or London (for mostly Americans), and even Bangkok for an extra 4 months if you choose to do the MBA. Most positions are in finance, so it’s a great way for people at the start of their careers to break into the industry as well as getting international experience.

My reasons for joining were pretty similar to a lot of other Mountbattens – post-grad life was getting a little bit stale, and I wanted something that combined travel, further education, and valuable work experience. I was looking for my next challenge but unsure what, and the more I learned about the programme the more perfect an option it seemed to be (because if you’re figuring out what to do with your life, you might as well do it in New York).

Starting at Thomson Reuters

After a few interviews with Thomson Reuters I was lucky enough to be offered a place in their F&R Proposition Marketing team – admittedly a relief to use my marketing experience, I had been nervous about being given a financial analyst role which, armed with my Geography BA, I imagined would have caused the whole company to crash within a week.

I gave up trying to explain to family and friends that working at TR would not mean I was going to be a journalist (oh, if only it were so glamorous), had the exciting realization that I would be based in the middle of Times Square (a novelty that very soon wore off as I fought past people dressed as Mickey Mouse trying to hug tourists), and started the challenge of getting my head around the monster that is the breadth of TR’s products and services. I learned how to pronounce Eikon properly (an embarrassing first week considering it was one of my main projects), learned to consider Bloomberg as a personal arch-rival, and began to settle into the role.

Whilst previous marketing agency roles of selling McDonald’s and Carlsberg to the masses was fun, I had missed the challenge of university work, and enjoyed having a chance to use my brain again in the fast-paced environment of TR. Marketing for industries that are always changing means there is always something new to learn and I have to be constantly switched on to keep an eye out for opportunities we can jump on to cut through the noise and get a TR message out to clients.

Now back to London

The year was a brilliant introduction to the financial industry, easing me into such a huge corporation that I might otherwise have never thought I was well suited for. It’s completely shifted my perception of where I want my career to go, and upon being lucky enough to start a permanent position back in the London office, I’m excited to see what TR brings next.

A big part of my year in the New York office that I’m keen to continue is discovering the brilliant commitment to Corporate Responsibility that runs through the company. I chose it as my dissertation topic as part of my MA, and the more I learned about the fantastic work the Corporate Responsibility & Inclusion team and the various Business Resource Groups (BRGs) groups do, the more I wanted to get involved and contribute to their success.