June Apprentice of the Month - Destiny Pullar-Latchman
We are happy to announce that the winner of the LDN Apprentice of the Month is Destiny @ Westbrook!
Functional Consultant Apprentice, Destiny, is the second LDN Salesforce apprentice to win the award having introduced our Salesforce Apprenticeship programmes last year!
Nominated by LDN Skills Coach, Kevin - we received some awesome feedback from Destiny’s line manager as well as the other brilliant nominees, which you can read below…
Destiny’s Skills Coach:
I have been impressed with how Destiny has been performing; she is pro-active, focused, takes the initiative, and delivers on words. She has completed her first project and took the opportunity to gather material for her second and has now delivered her 2nd project!
This is one month sooner than required and she is the first to submit her 2nd project!
Destiny’s Line Manager
Energy:
I was lucky enough to meet Destiny during the interview/selection process, and even at that early stage, one could tell Destiny would become integrated into the consultancy team right away. She is always eager to be assigned tasks and to help more senior colleagues around here. It seems Destiny has enough energy to work on several client work streams at the same time, and still find time for the apprenticeship program and for studying for the first certification exam.
Enthusiasm:
Being part of LDN’s L4 Salesforce Professional programme, we were eager to get Destiny up to speed with the platform as soon as possible in order to offer her the opportunity to get exposure to the live, billable projects.
So far, I have worked with Destiny on two projects (one billable - client-facing, the other internal, non-billable) and I have been amazed how simple/natural it all seems to Destiny. She is showing tremendous enthusiasm towards each task that is assigned to her - as soon as she's done, she let us know and often volunteering to help others while she awaits new tasks.
Willingness To Learn:
When joining our organisation, Destiny had some knowledge about the platform but was definitely willing and eager to get into the nitty-gritty details to building solid knowledge foundations from day one.
When working on projects (internal and client-facing), Destiny is always ready to tackle a challenge where she can explore the topic, find options, test them and propose the best possible option, often ending up implementing it as well - giving her the ability to get as much hands-on experience as possible. No task is too difficult for Destiny and with her work ethic, now, several months into the apprenticeship, Destiny is being considered for all types of client-facing projects.
Ability To Take Feedback:
Having worked with Destiny on two projects so far, I was really impressed by how independently she can operate - almost no or very little oversight. Since she is at the start of her consulting career, there is still much to learn, however, she is actively seeking feedback about her work and her performance - she understands the feedback given and is immediately looking for opportunities to apply it in her everyday work.
Propensity To Take Action:
Destiny is able to identify scenarios that need further clarification and take the initiative to set up sessions with key stakeholders to arrive at a consensus. This was evident in her latest project where she took the initiative to do this on many occasions. From a personal development standpoint, Destiny learns from situations she has not experienced before, such as config or approaches on projects, so that she is able to be self-sufficient in future roles. Destiny is not afraid to ask questions to increase her knowledge base and utilise her newly found knowledge on future projects.
An example of an outstanding piece of work or task they have done:
Destiny was tasked with fulfilling client requirements for lead scoring that enabled the marketing team to prioritise their lead funnel and identify potential revenue that they were unable to before. Destiny clarified the requirements in a session and executed the requirements with some complex formulas and logic. Even with the client changing their minds, she was still able to provide a robust and hugely effective solution that will no doubt contribute to the ROI of the client choosing Salesforce.
Our runner-up for this month is Publishing Assistant apprentice, Rosie Hilton at Saraband who was nominated by LDN Skills Coach, Helen! With feedback provided by Rosie’s line manager, Sara Hunt.
Rosie’s Skills Coach:
I want to nominate Rosie Hilton a second time for AOTM, because she has been utterly impressive in her work role as well as producing great work as an apprentice and making many contributions to our classes.
Rosie has shown a real assuredness and resourcefulness, in that she has learned from the LDN teaching and modules here, made links and connections to her own company and to different parts of that company, and seen key ways to make improvements. This has resulted in her project-managing the introduction of a metadata system for the first time into her small independent publishing house, and this has already created many efficiencies in staff time, and also will lead swiftly to extra sales, so she has made a genuine, lasting impact despite being only a few months into an apprenticeship!
She has dealt with technological and data challenges, been the main point of contact with the external supplier, and managed hugely detailed and time-consuming work, thinking laterally to try to overcome critical problems in data transfer, whilst also taking the opportunity to update data and files. This is a task that usually someone many more years her senior would undertake. That she realised the potential for this is truly excellent. Her apprenticeship project which describes this work is both highly impressive in how it is written but also in the work she did to complete it. She has given up time to talk to another apprentice through her understanding of metadata systems.
She shows a level of confidence, responsibility, motivation, and determination well beyond what we might expect at this stage. She also takes time to run Society of Young Publisher events and to seek out extra learning opportunities through webinars and courses.
Rosie’s line manager:
Rosie has brought an incredible can-do attitude and boundless energy to her tasks throughout the apprenticeship so far. Even though her experience of working with us started on the first day of the first lockdown, and we've never all sat in the office together since her job interview, she has become an invaluable team member. This is in large part because of the energy and commitment she has dedicated to the job, and frequent offers to help wherever she can be useful. Both for regular work and larger one-off tasks that have come along over the past year, she has consistently brought this energy to the table.
Across a range of areas, Rosie brings a refreshing level of enthusiasm, contributing ideas and volunteering for new tasks or helping out with any areas where we are especially busy. She shows a real love of different areas of the job, all the way from perfecting geeky details in metadata and production to reading and recommending our books to influencers, or enthusing about a cover design. This positive attitude is an absolute boon and boosts everyone's morale!
Here’s what was said about the other nominations:
Roisin McClarnon @ Livability:
Roisin has impressed my senior desktop team with the knowledge she already has and her ability to learn. If you ask or show Roisin once that's it, she will never need to ask or be shown again. Roisin has found and fixed dozens of pieces of equipment making them fit of use again, saving the charity several £1000's. Items have included Laptops, desktops, mobile phones and printers. A real asset to the Organisation, has made an immediate different.
Ravey Pambu @ Stemettes:
Ravey’s calm, friendly energy makes her a great host! This is one of the roles Ravey was keen to learn and grow into and it's going extremely well! Ravey is top of her game when it comes to autonomous learning and learning within the team. Ravey is going to go far and we can't wait to support her at every step.