Graduate Programme Spotlight - Mia McNeill

Name:

Mia McNeill

Job Title:

Graduate Business Analyst

Course Studied / Degree:

Business Management at Queens University Belfast. I started my course in September 2018 and graduated in July 2021.

What does Covernet’s Grad Programme offer?

Covernet’s graduate programme offers such a vast array of opportunities to develop your skillset.

In your first few weeks you receive in-depth 1-2-1 training with different members of the Covernet team, so you get to meet everyone but also see different areas of the system. The following weeks are spent on training projects overseen by a mentor, who explains everything and guides you through the different processes Business Analyst’s (BA’s) undertake.

Then I got to move onto real-world projects, sitting in on customer calls, carrying out thorough requirements analysis and forwarding any questions over to customers. After writing up a requirements document, a walkthrough with developers and development managers allows you to talk through your work, explain your understanding of the project to others and ask any questions.

Following the completion of development, as a BA I carry out smoke testing on the new functionality which allows you to see your specification come to life. 

Being a BA, I work closely with developers and QA's which has allowed me to cultivate a great working relationship with my peers. On top of this, engaging with customers daily allows me to interact with some of the largest insurance companies across the UK and ROI which is a huge bonus to your graduate experience.

What are your key learnings to date?

My main learning points have been understanding the ins and outs of the insurance industry. Having no prior experience in these areas I started from scratch learning about this industry. Undoubtedly, it’s a big learning curve but the support of the whole team who are at hand to answer any questions has made it easier.

I feel the more customer projects I work on the more areas of functionality and areas of insurance I am getting exposed to, which is developing my knowledge of the industry and giving me confidence in the role to quickly grow and develop.

The second main learning area has been to understand the process of becoming a Business Analyst. Weekly catch-up calls with the BA team and my mentor gives me the opportunity to ask any questions, check my work and provide any necessary feedback.

Working collaboratively with BA peers on some projects has allowed me to witness how more senior BA’s go about projects, how to fill out specification documents and conduct both internal/external meetings which has been a great learning experience and has enabled me to apply the same behaviours and terminology in my own work.

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