Even though many of our graduates will have progressed in their careers since completing a case study, they are still of interest to students who wish to gain an understanding of the world of work.

I'm responsible for managing HSBC's UK retail banking strategy and planning for business development of CRM systems. In English, this means I help to determine how the bank will develop its operational capabilities from both a functional and financial standpoint, working with key stakeholders across the business and technical functions to deliver new systems and enhancements that will hopefully allow the bank to better manage its interactions with customers, and to understand those customers more deeply (through more effective use of new and existing data).

My day to day activities vary significantly depending on which stage of a project lifecycle we are going through. It could be explorative work, researching new industry trends and capabilities, or it could be detailed user acceptance testing on a new system we're implementing, ensuring it is fit for purpose before it is rolled out to the end users.

Seeing a project go live and seeing the difference that the team has made. That could be something as small as seeing changes on the way we display content to visitors on our website, or it could fundamentally change how we interact with all of our customers. I also greatly enjoy the initial problem solving aspects of the job, where we figure out what we need to do in the first place in order to make improvements.

The sheer volume of people I need to talk to in order to manage various workstreams can be overwhelming at times, and as a result it sometimes feels like I spend my entire working life in meetings! The key is ensuring I maintain a healthy work/life balance and learning to say "no" to people - which is an important skill and one that not enough people employ.

Having worked in solutions analysis for five years or so, where I was responsible for designing technical solutions in response to business requirements, I was intrigued by the opportunity to have a greater hand in defining those upstream need areas. My new role is much more about deciding what we need to do as a business function in the first place, rather than figuring out what we need to do to arrive at that goal.

English literature isn't exactly the most obvious background to this type of work, but the raw transferable skills have been invaluable. Independent research, time management, constructing an argument... I use these skills almost every single day.

I receive quite a lot of training relating to my role to help align our working practices with the industry standards, but there is also a lot of 'soft-skill' training. One of the more interesting courses was a day on psychometric profiling, which gave a new insight into the ways different people approach work, communication, and decision making.

IT solutions analyst, HSBC - October 2010 to March 2016.
Principal business analyst, HSBC - March 2016 to present.

I've just taken on a new role as the lead for CRM systems strategy and planning, so at the moment I'm adjusting to a new position before worrying about longer term plans, but overall I'm quite satisfied with my professional life. Having finally bought a house with my partner I'm now probably far more focused on settling in and getting my personal life in order!

Think about how you can apply what you've learnt during your time at university to the wider working environment - employers often look for initiative and an entrepreneurial attitude - but remember this is a base and what matters professionally is where you go from there. One of the most appealing traits I look for in new recruits is a capacity to learn, and a strong appetite to match.