What will I be doing?

There are a variety of roles at American Express, your specific role will depend upon both your own aspirations and the needs of the business:

• Analyst Programmer - Designs and builds software applications in support of business needs on a variety of technical platforms.
• Business Analyst - Works with colleagues in business units to understand business needs and develop the logical design of business solutions.
• Project Manager - Manages technology projects from the identification of business needs through to the implementation of a business solution.

Take a look at what some of our current graduates are doing...

My name is Catriona Hamilton and I graduated from Edinburgh University in 2004 with a BSc Hons in Computer Science and Management Science. I started working for American Express as part of the graduate programme in September 2004.

Since joining American Express I have worked in both the development and operations environments. My first role was as a Business Analyst in the Interactive web development team where I learnt a number of skills, from interpreting business requirements, how to incorporate the latest technologies into the existing architecture, to running a project team.

After spending 18 months in Interactive I decided I wanted to broaden my experience and venture into the Operations side of the organisation. I worked in the Infrastructure & Maintenance team for 6 months as a Program Manager, overseeing a number of initiatives designed to improve the stability of American Express's operating environment.

At the end of the 2 years I am happy to say I was offered a permanent job as a Project Specialist in the Infrastructure & Maintenance team and am thoroughly enjoying the ever changing world of Operations. As well as obtaining my Masters in Information Technology for E-commerce, I have, with the support of American Express, also been able to work towards and gain professional certifications including; Sun Certified Java v5.0 programmer and ITIL Green badge.

My name is Sanjay Singh and I graduated from Bristol University in 2005 with a BEng (Hons) in Electronics Engineering. I started working for American Express in September 2006.

My first assignment at American Express was as an Application Developer for stand-alone applications made for call centers. I really enjoyed this role as I worked in a small team as it fully utilized the technical and programming skills that I learnt at university.

After four months I was able to change my role to become a Network Engineer. This provided me with the opportunity to broaden my skills and learn about new technologies in other areas. One of the best parts about my role is that I get a chance to try out new systems and analyze its impact on the American Express environment. In this role I have had the chance to work on big infrastructure projects, one of which was to provide voice and data capabilities to a brand new American Express building recently opened in Brighton that uses new technology to save considerable costs.

Since joining American Express I have also successfully gained a CCNA (Industry standard Networking certification) and I'm currently working on attaining the Java Certification. The benefit of this scheme is that after two years at American Express combined with MSc in Information Technology you will be able to stand out from other candidates when applying for positions.

My name is Lizzie Brown and I joined the American Express UK Technologies Masters scheme after graduating from the University of Sussex, with a degree in Experimental Psychology BCs Hons. I knew that the programme was right for me as it provided the opportunity to gain hands on work experience within a global organisation, in addition to continuing my academic development to a Masters level.

My first role was as a Business Systems Analyst in the Strategy and Solution Definition team for a point of arrival Account Receivables mainframe platform. Whist in this role I was actively involved in a number of international projects and was responsible for gathering, presenting, analysing and consolidating Business Partner requirements. I was accountable for ensuring that these requirements were translated into system specifications which led to the development of new technological solutions.

Whilst in the team I was given the opportunity to travel to Canada to present my work to the senior Business sponsors and project team which was a fantastic and exciting experience. When working on another project I also attended a meeting in Paris to gather compulsory legal and compliance requirements from the French Tax Authorities. This was a very serious matter and I was given the responsibility to be the single point of contact to represent the development team which was a challenging, yet rewarding experience.

I thrive on the working environment at American Express Technologies as it is dynamic, fast paced and exciting. There are a great number of opportunities to get involved in and the people are supportive and encouraging. Above all, at the end of the two years I will have gained a variety of transferable skills and a Masters in Human Centered Computer Systems.

Question

• Is there scope to change roles?
  • Yes, this is driven by your own personal career aspirations and the needs of the business.