Meet Tom, our latest “Super Talent”

Working with “Super Talent” is one of our core values at Cervus whether young or old. We are therefore pleased to introduce our newest member of the team, Tom Hurford.

According to the Sutton Trust’s latest Covid-19 impact brief, nearly half (49%) of SMEs and nearly a third (29%) of larger employers are cancelling some or all of their work experience and internship placements over the next year.

Sarah Sims, HR and Programme Manager  said:

Tom will be our third Year In Industry student and we are delighted to have him. Bringing in young people and helping them with their first work experience in the field is extremely rewarding and part of what makes Cervus like a family. However, this isn’t a solely philanthropic gesture – our YINI placements inject different perspectives, ideas and innovation for the benefit of our customers and ultimately the front-line. They keep us on our toes! While other business are reducing or stopping the number of placements they offer, we are determined to continue and are already preparing for our YINI student for 2021.

Tom joined Cervus on 3rd August during unconventional “COVID” times and will be having his first two weeks in quarantine.

Tom is 18 and has just finished his A Levels at Reed’s School, Surrey in Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Computer Science and is hoping to study Computer Science at either Imperial College London or Cambridge University after his 12-month Year In Industry (YINI) placement with us.

As part of his induction we wanted to get to know him a bit better and understand what he hopes to get out of the next year. This is what he had to say:

I think I’m naturally quite a ‘Maths’ person; both of my Grandad’s were Engineers, my Grandma was a Maths teacher, my mum is an Accountant and my dad is an Engineer. Whilst I didn’t study Computer Science at GCSE, it was suggested to me by my teacher for A Level and I’ve really enjoyed it; the theory has been quite tough, but I found the programming element came quite easily so I want to continue this through university but thought that doing a placement year would be more fun than going straight to Uni, which I’m pleased about now given the changes for freshers because of COVID. I did a lot of research on Cervus via the website and LinkedIn before applying and read all of the case studies – I thought they were really cool and were really relevant to my interests. I did my A Level Computer Science coursework on data analysis so understanding this and applying it at a more advanced level was of interest. I’d like to achieve at least these three things during my placement; 1 – contribute to the success of the projects I’m involved in; 2 – develop my coding skills; 3 – get a better understanding of working on a full stack product. My only real concern about the placement was the location, however having just passed my driving test, having family living fairly close when needed and being able to work from home a few days a week means I’m excited to get started.