Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Young Talent Program

🎯 Role Definition

The Young Talent Program is an early-career rotational and development initiative designed to accelerate high-potential recent graduates and early professionals into business-critical roles. Participants take ownership of defined projects, rotate through cross-functional teams, and receive structured mentorship and training to build technical, commercial and leadership capabilities that align with organizational goals.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Recent graduate (Bachelor's or Master's) recruited from university career fairs or campus hiring programs.
Internship conversion where the candidate completed a 3–12 month internship within a department.
Junior associate or analyst hired externally with 0–2 years of work experience and a strong learning orientation.

Advancement To:

Associate or Specialist role within a core function (e.g., Marketing Associate, Data Analyst, Finance Associate).
Program Alumni roles such as Rotational Lead, Project Manager (entry-level), or Talent Development Coordinator.
Fast-track into team lead or junior manager roles after 12–36 months based on performance and business need.

Lateral Moves:

Cross-functional moves into Product, Operations, Sales, HR, or Customer Success depending on rotation performance.
Secondment to a strategic initiative or center of excellence (e.g., digital transformation, analytics hub).

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Drive end-to-end ownership of assigned rotational projects by defining scope, creating project plans, coordinating cross-functional stakeholders, and delivering measurable outcomes aligned to program objectives and business KPIs.
Execute structured analyses and produce executive-ready presentations that synthesize quantitative findings, market research, and customer insights to influence product, marketing, or operations decisions.
Lead a minimum viable product or pilot initiative within a rotation by developing hypotheses, running experiments or A/B tests, documenting results, and recommending scale-up or pivot options to senior sponsors.
Collaborate closely with assigned mentors and managers to create a 6–12 month development plan, track learning goals, and demonstrate progression on technical and leadership competency milestones.
Design and deliver process improvements by mapping current-state workflows, identifying bottlenecks, building data-backed business cases, and implementing changes that reduce cycle time or cost.
Integrate user and stakeholder feedback into product or service iterations by organizing interviews, usability sessions, and stakeholder workshops to ensure customer-centric solutions.
Manage internal communications for program deliverables, including weekly status updates, stakeholder newsletters, and retrospective reports to support transparency and alignment.
Build and maintain dashboards and automated reports using Excel, Google Sheets, BI tools or basic scripting to track performance metrics and provide actionable insights to the team.
Support recruitment and onboarding for subsequent intake cohorts by participating in screening interviews, campus events, and onboarding workshops to represent the program and mentor new hires.
Own accountability for a portfolio of small-scale vendor or supplier relationships by tracking deliverables, negotiating timelines, and escalating risks to procurement or legal when necessary.
Contribute to strategic planning sessions for the function by synthesizing competitor benchmarking, market trend analysis, and internal performance data to inform annual priorities.
Facilitate cross-team workshops and sprint planning sessions, acting as a liaison between technical resources and business stakeholders to ensure shared understanding of deliverables.
Prepare and present a capstone or graduation project to senior leadership that demonstrates measurable impact, clear recommendations, and a roadmap for ongoing work after the rotation ends.
Execute customer or client-facing activities such as discovery calls, product demos, or field visits under supervision, and summarize findings into prioritised action items for the core team.
Support compliance and governance tasks by ensuring that all project work follows internal policies, data privacy requirements, and industry regulations relevant to the function.
Coordinate with analytics and engineering teams to scope data needs, validate data quality, and translate business questions into technical requirements for dashboards or pipelines.
Manage project budgets for pilot initiatives by preparing budget estimates, tracking expenditures, and reporting deviations with proposed corrective actions.
Develop and maintain knowledge repositories, playbooks and how-to guides to capture best practices, accelerate onboarding, and enable knowledge transfer across rotations.
Participate in continuous learning initiatives by completing required trainings, certifications, or micro-credentials linked to role-specific skills and leadership competencies.
Actively solicit feedback from peers, mentors and managers and incorporate that feedback into iterative improvements in communication, execution and professional presence.

(Additional primary responsibilities can include customer success follow-up, supporting sales enablement activities, or contributing to employer branding campaigns depending on rotation focus.)

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
Assist in program metrics tracking and post-rotation impact assessment to inform continuous improvement.
Help curate learning content and internal training materials for future cohorts.
Support corporate social responsibility or internal engagement projects as part of rotational learning.
Represent the program at external events, conferences or university panels to build employer brand.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Data literacy: ability to clean, analyze and visualize data using Excel, Google Sheets, SQL, or equivalent BI tools (e.g., Power BI, Looker, Tableau) to inform decisions.
Basic programming or scripting knowledge (Python, R, or JavaScript) to run simple automations, data transformations, or analysis pipelines.
Presentation and slide creation: craft concise, persuasive decks for stakeholders using PowerPoint, Google Slides, or similar tools.
Project management fundamentals: familiarity with Agile ceremonies, sprint planning, Jira/Asana/Trello, and creating project plans with clear milestones.
Quantitative analysis: ability to build simple financial models, ROI calculations, and cost-benefit analyses to support recommendations.
User research methods: conduct interviews, surveys and usability testing and translate qualitative insights into actionable requirements.
CRM and sales enablement tools: experience or exposure to Salesforce, HubSpot, or similar platforms is an advantage for commercial rotations.
Basic UX and prototyping skills: familiarity with tools like Figma or low-fidelity wireframing to contribute to product iterations.
Regulatory and compliance awareness: understanding of basic privacy, security, and industry-specific regulations (e.g., GDPR basics).
Cloud and data ecosystem awareness: understanding of cloud concepts and how data flows across systems (AWS, GCP, Azure exposure helpful).

Soft Skills

Strong written and verbal communication: explain complex ideas succinctly and tailor messaging to technical and non-technical audiences.
Curiosity and continuous learning: proactively seek feedback, new skills, and stretch assignments to accelerate development.
Problem-solving and critical thinking: break down ambiguous problems, prioritize root causes, and propose pragmatic solutions.
Collaboration and teamwork: work effectively across functions and with remote teams, demonstrating empathy and constructive communication.
Adaptability and resilience: thrive in fast-paced environments, manage multiple priorities, and recover quickly from setbacks.
Time management and organization: balance learning goals with delivery expectations and meet deadlines consistently.
Influencing and stakeholder management: build credibility and alignment with senior sponsors, peers and external partners.
Attention to detail and quality orientation: deliver error-free analysis, documentation and customer communications.
Cultural intelligence and inclusivity: demonstrate respect for diverse perspectives and contribute to an inclusive team environment.
Leadership potential and initiative: take ownership of tasks, mentor peers, and propose improvements beyond the immediate scope.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree in a relevant field (e.g., Business, Economics, Engineering, Computer Science, Data Science, Marketing, Human Resources) or equivalent practical experience and demonstrable project work.

Preferred Education:

Master's degree, MBA, or postgraduate diploma for specialized tracks (e.g., analytics, product management) is advantageous but not required.
Professional certifications or micro-credentials in data analysis, project management (e.g., CAPM), or product fundamentals are a plus.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Business Administration, Finance, Marketing
Computer Science, Information Systems, Data Science
Engineering (Industrial, Systems, Software)
Psychology, Human Resources, Organizational Behavior
Economics, Statistics, Mathematics

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 0–3 years of professional experience; primarily targeted at recent graduates, interns, or early-career professionals with demonstrable academic or project achievements.

Preferred:

Internship experience, campus project leadership, student organization roles, or freelance/volunteer projects that demonstrate ownership and impact.
Prior rotational program, co-op or international exchange experience is a strong differentiator.
Practical examples of completed projects with measurable outcomes (e.g., reduced process time, increased engagement, generated revenue, or improved NPS).

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