My new career

I graduated in 2017 from the University of Hertfordshire with a degree in accounting and finance and then immediately joined RELX. I've always loved to travel and recently moved to Amsterdam and I'm loving exploring my new city.

I first saw the RELX graduate scheme on Milkround. It looked like a great fit for me since I wanted to find something related to my studies, and I was interested in getting experience across a variety of finance roles. The opportunity to rotate around the business seemed like a great opportunity to be continually challenged and grow my professional experience. I hadn't really heard of RELX, but once I researched the business, I quickly came to realise I'd been using ScienceDirect for the previous three years and had also attended Exhibitions’ ComicCon.

RELX supported me through my Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) qualification, paying for my courses and even providing time off to study. My managers were supportive which made juggling work and study easy. Since I completed my qualification, there's been no shortage of opportunity to further develop my skills.  

I've worked across three of the four business areas - Risk, Exhibitions and STM, as well as at head office. I've had a range of roles in financial planning and analysis (FP&A), finance transformation and internal audit before taking on more strategic and commercial roles in Exhibitions. I then spent some time off to travel and work in consulting, before heading back to Elsevier where I now work as a strategy manager in Amsterdam. Having the opportunity to move internationally with the company has been exciting and knowing I have the support from RELX made it so much less daunting.      

I am a big advocate of the RELX Finance Graduate Scheme, it's a great place to start your career because the support is fantastic. Now I'm working at Elsevier where we're doing amazing work in AI. I find it exciting to help implement new technologies across our products. You can see the benefit these tools will have for our customers in academia and health, and it makes the work feel particularly rewarding.

I graduated from the University of Kent with a first-class honours degree in Economics and joined RELX in 2021. I started as a member of the record to report team for the Legal business based in London. My primary responsibilities involved ensuring the accurate reporting of financial information, financial analysis and general ledger maintenance. Additionally, I worked on different ad hoc projects throughout the year such as Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) controls and statutory accounts preparation. The role provided the great opportunity to collaborate with team members in the USA and the Philippines. This was a great foundation for both my career in finance and at RELX.

I joined the internal audit and assurance team in September 2022. During this rotation, I worked on audits across the four RELX business areas and RELX central functions. Given the diverse type of audits the team conducts, I gained a deeper understanding of RELX. The responsibilities of this role provided a unique opportunity to interact and network with senior management as I was given the responsibility to lead an audit abroad and meet all key stakeholders face to face. Part of being an auditor is being adaptable and having great communication and critical thinking skills. Interacting with a variety of people throughout the organisation and being exposed to a wide array of business areas and types of audits while being a part of the audit team has greatly enhanced these skills.

In September 2023, I began my final rotation as a portfolio analyst in Exhibitions. This role consists of producing insights and analytics for key stakeholders. Additionally, as part of the graduate scheme, I had the opportunity to study the Associate Chartered Accountant (ACA) professional qualification. As of December 2023 I have successfully completed all 15 exams.

As a graduate, with a degree from the University of Chichester in Accounting and Finance, I applied for many jobs and found the RELX role on a graduate job site. What really drew me in was the option for yearly rotations through different areas of the business as I wasn’t entirely sure which area of finance I wanted to work in long-term.

I joined the RELX Finance Graduate Scheme in 2018 where the interview process consisted of a telephone interview followed by an assessment day. The assessment day was tough, but it was a great way to learn more about the business. There were written tests, an in-person interview and an observed team exercise. I think the variety of the day was great and meant we got to showcase our different skills, while meeting lots of different people.

My journey started within the accounting department in Risk which was a great first placement. I worked on different ad-hoc projects throughout the year such as SOX controls and quarterly reporting to a group level. This helped me to learn the basics of accounting and gave me a good foundation for the other finance roles I would take on.

I then spent a year in the corporate tax team where I was able to work with all the different teams within tax on varied project work. For my final year I worked in STM as a business decision support analyst. My main responsibilities in this role were supporting the preparation and analysis of financial information for the marketing team, supporting the budgeting and reforecasting processes and also providing senior management with information acquired from the sales teams. This role required a lot more contact with colleagues outside of the team which was great for developing a different set of skills.

As I came to the end of the graduate scheme I applied for two internal roles, both in areas that I had worked before and ended up choosing a role in the corporate tax team. I felt it was the best fit for me and I really enjoyed being able to see the RELX business as a whole. I am now a senior transfer pricing analyst where part of my role is to look after the compliance process for transfer pricing for the whole of RELX.

I studied Management Sciences and Accounting at The University of Southampton, graduating in 2018. I had not heard of RELX prior to applying for the finance graduate scheme but I knew that I wanted to complete my accounting qualifications, so I was looking for a scheme that provided this opportunity. When I looked at the RELX scheme, the opportunity to work within all the RELX business areas was a great opportunity and this is what drew me to apply.

My interview process was almost six years ago but from what I remember it was much less daunting than I had first imagined, everyone was very welcoming and it really gave a flavour of the culture within RELX.

RELX has supported me in gaining by Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) professional qualification. Over the graduate scheme it was very helpful to have a dedicated mentor, graduate buddy and network of graduates who all support one another. In my time I have worked in FP&A in Legal, business decision support in STM, accounting and compliance in Risk and now I am senior decision support analyst, back in Legal.

I have had the opportunity to work on the finances for the Rule of Law Foundation which has been incredibly interesting and insightful. I have also assisted in helping to recruit for the graduate scheme, I like being able to meet and give advice to new graduates joining the scheme.

I went to the University of Bristol, to obtain my undergraduate degree in Accounting & Finance. What drew me to the RELX Finance Graduate Scheme was the opportunity to study for the ACA qualification, while gaining three years’ of varied commercial experience, rather than having to go to a financial services company with a potentially worse work-life balance and having to work in just one area for three years.

I applied for a number of finance grad schemes and found the RELX scheme on Milkround.

RELX has supported me throughout the ACA qualification, providing learning materials and courses, along with appropriate study leave. My manager is always willing to accommodate and prioritise learning and development.

I started in ICIS, part of Risk, in decision support, followed by a role in Legal in corporate FP&A and then STM in finance transformation. I then joined Risk again and am now finance manager. My role today supports international fraud and identity markets, mainly helping banks prevent fraud to customers and enabling safer baking for us all.

This is a fantastic opportunity to join a huge company and have experience across at least three different business areas and finance roles, while being able to study for a professional qualification of your choice. All while being supported by amazing colleagues and management.