#GradStories Luke Adams, HR Transformation Analyst Deloitte

What's your name, job and employer?

My name is Luke Adams. I'm a Human Capital Analyst and I work in Deloitte Dublin.

What does your job involve?

The best thing I like about it is that there is no normal week. Our jobs can change on a day to day basis. What is great is that there is a lot of stakeholder management, client engagement, really talking to people and engaging with them to see what they want and get the best solution for them. I've been in the Human Resource Transformation department, within the Human Capital service line of Deloitte. Through that I get a little bit of involvement in the future of work with regards to how employees engage with technology, how the future of work is changing and what the organisation looks like in the future. I have a tech background so I get to use the skills I learned as an undergraduate – coding, Excel, all that good stuff.

What skills are important to be successful?

The one main skill I would rely upon every day would definitely be communication. It's all about communication in this job. How you convey what you want, what you need, how you need it and how you convey it in the manner to get it exactly how you need it.

What do you love about your job?

What I love about my job is that while it's a professional environment and always will be, as we need to deliver excellence to our clients, there is room for creativity. Once I came in I felt that I'm a part of this organisation and I really can make an impact and a difference. You can come forward and be brave and bold with your solutions. If you think something can be done better and improved, if you feel like you can add something, always stick your hand up. Be creative. Give diverse solutions. That's what it's all about.

What activities did you do in college that have helped you?

You can't be afraid to look into different routes. For myself, college was fantastic and taught me some basics, as did the internships I've done. Some of the skills I've learned ad hoc on personal projects, not in a lecture theatre but things I found out of my own personal interests. I also did drama and stand up comedy. From there you get a little bit of communication skills, presentation skills, and it's never bad to have a joke up your sleeve if you need it.

What skills did you learn in college that have helped you?

The best skill I learned in college was definitely coding and programming. I feel like in every situation where you have a problem, it's always good to phrase it in inputs, outputs and what do I need to get there, and that's the one thing coding has always taught me – take your inputs and figure out how you can get them into some sort of outputs. Coding made a massive difference to my career.

What was your 'career break'?

I didn't actually know what I wanted to do and was puzzled when it came to the September mark but I went to a number of talks and presentations with organisations. I listened to them and what they did and how they did it. Fortunately enough I went to a talk with my partner, Valerie Dobb, who spoke about human resource transformation, the future of work and people analytics. I fell in love with it there and then.

How is your job different to what you expected?

Personality was the biggest thing I found. In college I felt like taking a large job like this would mean checking my personality at the door and giving up being creative, which is something I always loved. The one thing I've found that is embraced in my service line in my organisation is to be creative and bring your individualism to your projects. Diversity breeds creativity and breeds better solutions.