Taking on graduates was something we discussed often in the early years of MBS. Is a small technical consultancy the right place for graduates to come in and train or are they better served in a larger business with more opportunities for hands on field work and opportunities to see a range of different things? Consultancies are bound by the work clients are prepared to pay us for and this doesn’t always extend to allowing graduates or younger staff to tag along to key meetings or fieldwork. If we don’t take graduates on, where is the future of our industry in a broader sense and do we have the right to complain when we can’t find appropriately experienced senior people when we go looking.
In the 20 years of MBS, we have trained about 30 graduates and quite a number of others on top of this who joined us very early on in their careers. It’s been a conscious decision to take this approach. It takes time, patience and a willingness to keep sharing within our team. We feel the frustration and pain like many other small businesses when individuals we have invested in move to other opportunities. Rather than focusing on the negatives, we try to remember that this is a positive reflection on what we have been able to impart to these individuals and how others view their skills. Everyone needs to spread their wings and have the opportunity to soar. Hopefully the time they have spent at MBS has contributed to some mighty eagles in the environmental industry.
