Matthew Long

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M&G PLC

Apprentice |

School/College Leaver

Why do you enjoy your job?

I enjoyed that it allowed me to get involved in, and gain experience in, a lot of different areas which will aide my career going forward. This meant that no two days were the same and I was constantly learning throughout the 3 years in the role picking up contacts throughout the business.

What is the most challenging thing about your job?

The most challenging part of the role was working closely with very senior people, because they could be hard to track-down between meetings to achieve sign off on tasks I was completing.

My most challenging assignment was running a mini project to find a cloud based absence management solution which I purchased and rolled out to over 1400 people within the business. Being trusted to do this as an apprentice really showed that M&G was unconcerned by job title if they thought you were capable of achieving the task.

How did you get into your job?

I finished sixth form in 2010 when apprenticeships weren’t what they are today, only really being for jobs in the building trade. Unsure of what I wanted to do I didn’t go to university for fear of wasting time studying something without a career benefit and I turned my part time retail job to a permanent position. I spent the next 3 years in the retail sector building working experience up to assistant manager level. At the end of 2013 I started applying for entry level process driven roles in financial services having identified that this matched the areas I enjoyed most in my retail role. I stumbled across the National Apprenticeship website (with no idea what an apprenticeship was) and applied for, and was offered a few roles. I accepted a position at M&G and started in 2014.

How would you sum up your Investment20/20 experience?

Investment20/20 really gives you a platform to start a career in financial services you wouldn’t otherwise get.