Rightmove Graduate Scheme Experience 1 month in (pandemic edition)
The recruitment process at Rightmove was communicative and coherent. Despite being remote, the people involved did not lose sight of making us applicants feel welcome and wanted. In fact, Rightmove was the only company that I applied to who conducted a virtual assessment centre – as opposed to the myriad of take-home coding tasks, marked by an automated system that I did for an abundance of other companies. Immediately, this felt engaging…a totally different ‘flavour’ of challenge. I had ultimate imposter syndrome (don’t we all – *snooze*), convinced that the fact I may not successfully whip up 100 lines of perfect code in 10 minutes would mean no chance of an offer. However, not long into the recruitment process, I realised willingness and a tenacious attitude were valued above all. Et voila! Here I am.
Wanting to be the best version of myself and give good first impressions, on the first day I held a beaming smile all day long. However, I soon realised the smile was genuine and I naturally was keen to befriend everyone I spoke to. Rightmove really take pride in their ethos and radiate positive attitudes from the moment you walk through the door into a spacious and bright office (with a sociable kitchen area featuring a pool table and table tennis).
Myself and the other graduate were provided with a loose timetable for our first few weeks, which was enough to provide structure and eliminate any lost puppy feelings. As part of the rigorous contextual training, to ensure we knew our company’s purpose alongside short and long-term goals, we had personalised sessions on topics such as the buying and letting process of property. Across the first 4 weeks, each team gave a 30-minute introduction into what they do, who they are and where we can find them. We met the executive team and had an informal chat with opportunities to ask questions at every step of the way. Granted, this is a busy 4 weeks, with a mass of information to digest. This is manageable when it is coupled with the support available to us. The support system constructed for us involves a buddy within our teams, a mentor external to our teams, and an engineering manager. We had regular check-ins to ensure the pace and level of integration was just right. As new employees we were expecting it to be overwhelming so I wouldn’t want it any other way.
During my second week, I was lucky enough to be able to go to Rightmove’s 21st birthday party and company day. Naively I pre-empted the business-y acronyms and financial predictive graphs to fly over the top of my head. I was wildly proven wrong, finding myself fully immersed and invested in the strategies laid out for the future, as well as the story behind the growth in the past 21 years. No one can deny that property is one of the most relatable topics – every Rightmover has their own experiences to draw on. The evening came, and as I had hoped, everyone boozed, boogied and babbled spoke eloquently and acted with utmost dignity the entire night!
To begin with we were given a technical project to work on. This allowed us to become familiar with Rightmove’s tech stack, creating a site to view a list of properties with sorting and filtering functionality…I see what they did there! The tech task also encouraged us to ask people within our team for help and utilise resources.
Learning is my top priority, as a graduate I am ready to absorb as much information as possible as well as gaining new skills and enhancing existing ones. Much to my dismay, along with a large proportion of the population, it is not possible to click your fingers and know everything in an instant. Through one-to-one meetings with my buddy, mentor and engineering manager, I have been gradually thinking about goals to work towards, both technical and personal – resulting in me feeling confident with the plan ahead. Cheers to Rightmove, because I think I’ve hit the jackpot.
