IT Risk Undergraduate

Taran Hunjan

Computer Science and IT

Placement (10 Months+)

Volkswagen Financial Services

What made you want to join Volkswagen Financial Services?

VWFS is an incredibly reputable financial services firm and one of the biggest to offer a plethora of services and products catered to the automobile industry. Their outlook on sustainability and DE&I convinced me that this was the company to join, ensuring me that whatever endeavours I engage in, whether a new project or just day-to-day, always uphold the best interests of all stakeholders.

What are the highlights of your placement so far?

One of the many highlights for me has been meeting so many talented and inspiring industry professionals who work tirelessly to propel the image of VWFS. I have managed to pick up so much already by simply asking questions and having a keen ear. As much as this sounds intimidating I have also been offered the responsibility for a lot of real work, by that I mean my team has entrusted me with a lot of key responsibility from the very start to ensure I am learning and developing from day one.

How would you describe the culture at VWFS?

The culture is fantastic, in short. Everyone is very accommodating and open to answer any magnitude of question. Coming into my role, I didn’t have much experience at all, often I shy away from asking too many questions as I feel like it makes me seem as if I don’t understand what is expected of me. Having spent just 4 months so far with my team and amongst the wider IT function, I have been more comfortable and actively encouraged to speak up and air any concerns or doubts, which has helped me develop massively on both a personal and technical level.

What do you do on a day to day basis within your role?

Within IT Risk, I work in GRC (Governance, Risk and Compliance) and this involves taking technical detail around IT operational and strategic risks, assessing the implications from a business perspective, and then driving decisions and remediation. My day-to-day involves a lot of different tasks, to name a few, organising and partaking in meetings and discussions, managing documentation and data, and completing various tasks using some specialist tools and applications.

What advice would you give to a student following in your footsteps?

Be ready to learn from day one, because even if work is slow to begin with there is so much to read up about and educate yourself on. Just ask your manager about what to familiarise yourself with and crack on with those LinkedIn courses and the broad range of learning resources offered by the company. It will be extremely helpful as you begin diving into those key tasks. As always ask as many questions as you can, it makes a huge difference to the entire experience. But most importantly, just enjoy it!