Millie Carlin

I’m part of Cyber Security Operations Centre - a 24-hour response team that prevents, detects, analyses and reports any security incidents. While helping with various day-to-day activities, like monitoring the phishing inbox to assess threats, I’m also learning various coding languages so I can begin dealing with alerts myself. Recently, I worked on a project to test our honeypot traps – decoys designed to lure in hackers. A teammate and I were tasked with triggering these traps in every way possible. We started in a virtual environment, but soon worked on the real thing, documenting as we went and learning how to investigate each alert. It was a lot of fun!

I hadn't heard of Baillie Gifford before I applied for the apprenticeship, but after reading through their website I thought they looked like a great company. Strangely, after I applied, the name kept popping up! In the months before I started, lots of people told me about someone they know at Baillie Gifford who says it’s an amazing place to work. Now that I’m part of the company, I completely agree!

I’ve met a lot of amazing people, from fellow apprentices and team members to managers – making real bonds with people from all over Scotland. The Christmas party was a great event for that. After dinner with the team in a local restaurant, we came to one of the offices to find it decked out with Christmas lights and trees. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was amazing. Throughout the night, I met so many new people and got to know my team members much better. Seeing them outside of work hours really helped make it a great experience.

The application process was much more straightforward than you might expect. My interview was done over a video call, with my manager and team leader. They asked a series of questions to find out more about me, and to see how much I already knew about cyber security. Throughout it, they were both very friendly and chatty, which helped take the pressure off and make me feel less nervous. Coincidentally, I’d met my manager before, when Baillie Gifford visited my school to promote a summer internship with Code Clan!

Please note that any references to current teams in bios are as of the time of writing and may not reflect the current situation due to the rotational nature of the programmes.