Waterstons
Graduate Consultant – Graduate Development Programme

How your CV stacks up
Upload your CV to see how well it fits this job role
?%
A bit about us
We’re problem solvers at heart. Sometimes the answer is technology, sometimes it is strategy, and sometimes it is a strong cup of tea and a bit of thoughtful conversation. Whatever it takes, we work it out with our clients.
We’re an IT consultancy that helps organisations get the best out of their technology. That means keeping them secure and keeping the bad guys out, making sure everything works and is easy to use, and doing smart things with data and software to give their business an edge. It is important work, and we care about doing it well and for the right reasons.
Life at Waterstons is friendly, flexible and built on trust. We hire people who are curious, thoughtful and good at getting to the heart of a problem. You get support, trust and room to grow in a place that still feels human. The unlimited holidays and private healthcare are a nice touch, although most people stay because it feels like the right place to do good work with good people.
Are you ready to shape your future?
We're on the lookout for our future superstars. We’ve realised that our brightest problem solvers often start in our most client facing roles. Many of our most senior people answered phones and helped clients face to face before going on to tackle our biggest client challenges and eventually sit on our board. We’ve designed our Graduate Development programme to capitalise on this.
We’re looking for those who are hungry for a challenge, those keen and willing to learn new things, to develop and adapt. We’re looking for curious souls and those excited by the prospect of solving intricate client problems.
In this role you'll
start on in our Managed Services team for your first 12 months, primarily working as part of the service desk team building a solid foundation in IT and client-facing consulting skills for the rest of your career. You'll solve real problems face to face with clients. You’ll spend time onsite with them. You’ll get to understand their businesses and build connections.
Reasons to use Rodeo
I’m in my final year doing Economics and I don’t know whether to apply for grad schemes now or do a masters first. What do you think?
Honest answer — it depends on where you want to end up. A lot of top grad schemes (Big 4, civil service, banking) don’t need a masters. Let’s look at the ones you’d be competitive for now, and we can decide if a masters actually adds anything.
Also worth knowing: most autumn 2026 applications are open now. Timing matters more than you think.
Start with a chat, not a search bar
Grad scheme, placement, apprenticeship? Not sure what you want yet — that's fine. Your agent talks it through with you and turns "I have no idea" into a shortlist.
Graduate Consultant — 2026 Scheme
Why you're a good match
StrongYour economics background and your summer at a regional bank line up with what PwC looks for on the consulting scheme. Applications close in four weeks.
See breakdownIt searches the market for you
Every day your agent scans the market matching roles against what actually matters to you, not just keywords on a CV.
Why you're a good match
You’ve got the grades and the economics background, and your bank internship is exactly the experience this scheme looks for. Apply soon — deadlines close within the month.
Experience fit
Your summer at the bank plus your econometrics coursework map directly to the day-one responsibilities on this scheme — client modelling, market briefings, and deal support.
Only hits
No noise. No "maybe this fits." Just roles with a clear explanation of why they're right — and where to focus when applying.
At the end of the programme, you’ll have the opportunity to move into another department. As part of your application, you'll tell us which department interests you most: Software, Data, Cyber, Advisory, or continuing in Managed Services, and we'll do our best to match you to it. If you change your mind along the way we'll stay flexible.
First 12-months
In your day-to-day, you'll rotate through four technical functions on the service desk, gaining hands-on experience across the full breadth of IT support:
- Managed IT Support: Clients reach you by phone or email with technical problems. We don't do tiers, so you'll own each issue end to end and fix it properly, not just patch it.
- Monitoring and Management: We look after thousands of devices, cloud platforms and the networks connecting them. You'll learn to spot and solve performance issues before they cause client downtime.
- Security Operations: We keep a close watch on our clients security as well. Make sure their infrastructure and data is safe. You’ll learn the tools and the systems behind this, and how to secure things when somethings not right.
- IT Service Delivery: You'll help turn reactive, firefighting IT into something that adds real value: assessing risk, investigating issues, and presenting findings that drive improvement.
How we’ll support your development
We’ll give you an experienced mentor to support you throughout the programme.
We have a graduate development programme lead who will be with you throughout your graduate journey.
To enable you to gain experience across a breadth of skills and knowledge we’ll make sure you get exposure to things like on-site working, business development and ensuring you have the opportunity to be regularly client facing.


Get help with your application
Your very own career expert that helps elevate your application to the next level.
Whatever skills or knowledge you need to learn and develop for your chosen specialism, we’ll help you to gain and build that knowledge.
This role is based in our Durham, Glasgow or London office.
How We Take Care of You
As well as offering a competitive salary, we have an attractive benefits package including:
- A healthy work life balance with flexible and agile working being the norm
- Flexible holiday allowance, with a minimum of 30 days a year
- EV car scheme (salary sacrifice)
- Room to grow with supported development opportunities and sponsored training
- Enhanced family policies
- If you ever need it, company sick pay and life assurance
- Supported wellbeing with regular initiatives, an employee assistance programme and private medical insurance
- Flexible benefits such as a dental scheme, eye care support, season ticket loan and cycle to work
- Opportunities to get involved in CSR
We’ve outlined our recruitment process, so you know exactly what to expect:
- Online Application – Just fill out the form.
- Video Questions – No tech tests, just a chance to show us who you are. This will happen throughout October and November 2026.
- Grad Assessment Day – Join us at one of our offices for a day of activities designed to help us get to know you better and you get to know us too! This is likely to take place in January 2027.
Please note: After receiving a high volume of applications last year, and to ensure we continue to protect the candidate experience, we will once again monitor application volumes and may choose to close the opportunity early whilst we review the applications we have already received.
“It took my CV and asked me questions relevant to understanding what kind of jobs to suggest for me. Suggestions were almost perfect. Jobs were exactly what I’ve been looking for.”
Jessica, London