I have recommended working here to many of my friends and will continue to do so. This is one organisation that most resembles my personal values. With this, I can proudly say that my journey at Heirs Holdings has been lifechanging. I know, I know. It sounds like I’ve been here for a hot minute but my journey here only started in March.
I always knew I wanted to start my career doing a graduate trainee program. The tick for me was learning and working in every department of a company to fully understand the business and add value.
But boy was that eclipsed!
I ended up in an organisation that did way and far more than that!
Let’s start with the application because that indeed begins my HH journey. The rigorous yet online cognitive ability test and virtual assessment center. That was intense but looking back I can say it was a glimpse of what the program was all about.
I remember going on my morning walk and receiving the email that I had been accepted into the Heirs Holdings graduate trainee program. Very unorthodox but I paused and needed some time for this to sink in. On getting to HH the very first day (the day of induction), my expectations were blown away. Prior to this, I had been briefed about the working system and culture adapted by majority of Nigerian companies. However, what I had stepped into was the absolute opposite of what had been described to me.
The induction ceremony was eye opening to what the program would be all about. Imagine my surprise when the induction was to conclude with a cocktail/networking session in the garden with all the group CEOs. Interesting. From that first day I knew I would enjoy working at HH.
The program has been a mix of instructor led classes facilitated by selected faculty within the Heirs holdings group, virtual learning through Coursera courses, competency based functional rotation job shadowing and experiential learning through fireside chats and knowledge sharing sessions.
The functional rotation job shadowing, unlike what I imagined a graduate trainee would be within a company, was bigger and on wider scale. We get to go around the group companies under functional areas such as Strategy & Management, Marketing & Corporate Communications (MCC), Financial Products & Investment, Sales, Finance and Digital Innovation to gain insight and add value to the businesses across all sectors.
Regardless of backgrounds, we transition easily in these job shadowing rotations because of the guidance and assistance offered by each group company. A highlight so far on this HH journey for me has been hosting a fireside chat with Somachi Chris-Asoluka. I had so much fun while doing that but gained an awful lot.
Another would be the amazing people I’ve met and interacted with across the group that exhibit the HH culture. The quality of these people! I really can tell a HH person when I see one anywhere!
As graduate trainees, we joke around about how we’ve imbibed the 3 E’s so much that in the minutest of things like cooking noodles, ‘Enterprise, Excellence & Execution’ comes to mind. Hahaaa
Ooops… did I forget to mention we are the pioneer set of Graduate Trainees at Heirs Holdings that launched Heirs Academy? Hmm maybe I should have started with that. Would have given a better perspective from the get-go and explained my uncontained excitement. But oh well…
