Meet the Graduate: Adeitan Adedayo
Meet Adeitan Adedayo, who joined our Graduate Programme back in September 2022. He talks about his background, what made him join the programme and his experience over the past nine months. Read on to learn more.
Nine months ago, I signed up for the Kloeckner Graduate Programme. I’d heard about it through TargetJobs and it seemed like the perfect opportunity for me because it had a similar structure to my university degree in the sense that I would get a chance to learn about all aspects of the business, but in a more practical setting, while also gaining experience of what it’s like being in the real working world.
Having completed my degree in business and management from the University of Kent, I was unsure about what my next steps would be. Studying a business degree means that you learn about every single aspect of a business; it exposes you to many industries therefore giving you many different career options. After looking around, I decided that I wanted to be a business development executive because I felt that it would best suit my personality and skillset. The options were limitless, but I wanted to ensure that the field I chose to work in was one that I was passionate about.
While I was contemplating my options, I heard about the Graduate Programme offered by Kloeckner Metals UK, through an email sent to me by TargetJobs. I researched some more and found out that it’s a 25-month structured development programme, designed to provide a holistic view of every key area of the national business while you work as a full-time employee. This felt like the right opportunity for me since I wanted to test the waters and try out different things before committing to the next stage of my professional life. However, because Kloeckner Metals was based in Leeds, I was unsure about whether to apply or not; I wasn’t sure how I would make it work as I live in Essex. Despite all of this, I applied anyway because I thought it was such a good opportunity and I was absolutely delighted to find out that I had been selected. I was also pleased to find out that Kloeckner Metals had recently opened a new office in my area, which meant that it would be possible for me to work there. I started at Kloeckner three months ago and since then I’ve worked mostly on learning about the business and being introduced to everyone, as well as starting my first rotation in Operations.
In my short time at the company, I have learnt about things such as transport, procurement and production management, which are all key parts of operations. I have also seen first-hand how the Sales and Operations teams work together to deliver products to customers on time as well as ensuring that the warehouse and the overall site run smoothly.
If you’re considering signing up for Kloeckner’s Graduate Programme, my advice would 100% be: Apply. Firstly, there aren’t many companies that will take care of you the way Kloeckner does – from your first day everyone makes an effort to get to know you and make you feel comfortable, which is really helpful, especially if this is your first real job. Kloeckner is really flexible and will support you in finding a way for you to work to the best of your abilities.
Secondly, I would say be prepared and enthusiastic to learn. Unless you have an interest in the steel industry already, chances are you will be coming into the business with no knowledge, so you need to be ready to learn as much as you can, from the products to the clients to all the different processes and machines that the company has available to it. I would also say be as proactive as possible. This is a company where almost everyone is an expert at what they do, so there won’t be many tasks lying around for you to pick up – you’ll need to be proactive and make some work for yourself.
Finally, I would say you need to be open, as you will be going to new cities for work and you may spend some weeks away from home. However, it is very beneficial as the time you spend away from home will be spent visiting other sites and seeing how they all operate. This is all done to further your knowledge of the business.
For more details about Kloeckner’s Graduate Programme, please check our website here