- Getting a paid once a month. It takes some getting used to but can still be difficult to budget if you have a major, unforeseen expense and do not have a sufficient emergency fund in place.
- Coming to National Grid as a mid-level engineer, but new to the utility industry, I would have liked to have cross-trained and learned skills for other engineering groups outside of my own normal day-to-day duties and I was told there could be opportunities to do so, and that all we had to do was make the request, however, my workload did not allow me to do so. I do not at all doubt that I would have been given additional assignments to learn other roles, but given every project has critical deadlines that must be met, it proved more difficult than thought. I think this would be easier for younger employees with fewer projects, than for employees with several years of service and many projects in their portfolio. I stress that I do not think this is a management or company issue, because I know I would have been given other projects as a means to enhance my knowledge. The director of our group promoted cross-functional learning. It was always just an issue of timing and workload for me, so I was never able to take on an additional project where I could develop some new engineering skill or understanding outside of my current role. National Grid does have an outstanding Graduate Development Program for new employees, which gives them an opportunity to work in various groups prior to starting the role they were hired for.
