From Apprentice to Business Partner, Molly has excelled in her finance career here at JLR

Having joined JLR in 2016 on the Finance Degree Apprenticeship scheme, I am now a Finance Business Partner in Commercial Planning and Performance. When attending sixth form in my hometown, Derby, I felt some pressure from peers and teachers to go to university, however I was inspired by Apprentices from a manufacturer in the Midlands who had presented at my school about the benefits of apprenticeship schemes. I researched UK-wide Accounting and Finance schemes, seeing them as the perfect opportunity to blend the logic and problem solving I had enjoyed in A-Level maths with my interest in business and financial planning from Business Studies and Economics. I was drawn to JLR’s passion for people and reputation as a great employer. Of course, I also liked the idea of contributing to the success of tangibly beautiful products.

I found the transition from A-Levels to Apprenticeship daunting, I was nervous I might struggle with exams or moving away. I worried I wouldn’t be around others in a similar situation, and that I’d be at a disadvantage compared to friends going to uni. These worries were quickly addressed. JLR put a strong support system in place immediately. From day one, I was introduced to the rest of my cohort, met my line manager, and was assigned a mentor. There was an Early Careers-specific talent board who guided us through every step of the scheme, as well as a cohort champion who was there for our technical, social, and professional growth.

The scheme allowed for easy support network expansion. I gained experience within Finance teams across Engineering, Global Financial Services, Purchasing, Product Marketing, and Financial Planning and Analysis, under guidance of diverse and supportive managers with different styles and experience. My responsibilities expanded at a pace that felt manageable whilst I was still being stretched. These roles encouraged me to take on various tasks and projects, helping me identify my strengths and passions while continuously challenging myself.

20% of my week was dedicated to studying, so my roles were balanced with CIMA studies, where I attended college one day a week with the five other members of my apprentice cohort. I was close with the rest of my cohort; we’d often study together, share revision tips, and socialise outside of work. My cohort were the people that made me feel like I wasn’t missing out on “the uni experience”, even getting to live with one of them for four years and calling them all my close friends eight years later.

Following CIMA, I had the opportunity to complete a Master’s degree in Professional Accounting and Finance. at Aston University. Having benefited from a range of mentoring, coaching, and support from female role models, and with the growing spotlight around DE&I in organisations, I was motivated to learn more about the importance of gender diversity in male-dominated environments. For my dissertation I studied the relationship between Corporate Board Quotas, Women on Executive Boards, and Financial Performance.

Growth and development weren’t exclusive to roles, responsibilities, and formal qualifications. Alongside these, our cohort participated in development days and spotlighting sessions for presentation practice. We attended C-Suite sessions that facilitated conversations with senior leaders in Finance, and share fairs that provided avenues for networking across the business to understand where our next role might serve us best.

I completed the apprenticeship scheme in 2020 and was keen to gain more business partnering experience and get closer to the JLR vehicles, so I moved into Product Engineering Finance where I worked in the team responsible for the running change budget for 8 carlines across 5 plants in the UK, Slovakia, and Austria. I applied learnings from the apprenticeship to assess the financial impact of running changes on current cars in production, whilst engaging with the manufacturing, engineering, and purchasing teams to ensure changes offered an acceptable return on investment.

Often being the only voice of Finance in meetings helped me build confidence to apply for a promotion, and in 2021 I was promoted into Financial Planning and Analysis. As a Senior Finance Analyst, I was responsible for analysing and reporting the actual and target corporate income statement by carline and market. Following earlier experience in Product Marketing Finance where my manager had empowered me to learn VBA, produce, and present custom commercial forms and reports, I was keen to expand on my data analytics and presentation skills to support the business to make data-driven decisions. I learnt how to use SQL and Tableau and used these skills to build dashboards, presenting them to teams of up to 150 people. My manager helped me to find opportunities to share my learnings and educate other teams within Finance, culminating in me presenting to senior leadership and CFO level.

My dissertation was the perfect opportunity to explore a topic I’m passionate about, and my following level 4 Data Fellowship qualification gave me the breadth to delve into more technical knowledge, such as Python.

Having enjoyed supporting key profitability decision makers and wanting to expand this to the commercial side of the organisation, 6 months ago I was promoted to Finance Manager, where I Business partner the Commercial Operations team and regional finance teams to optimise deployment, reporting, and control of the variable marketing expense. This opportunity exemplifies the culture of growth and progression that comes with a career at JLR, not just the apprenticeship scheme. My advice for those interested in starting a career at JLR through the Early Careers route is to ask questions, speak up, put yourself forward. Everyone at some point has had imposter syndrome or felt out of their depth, and that’s when the support network is so important.  Your colleagues are invested in helping you and all the tools that you need are already there – just have the confidence to use them.