The BA Kinetics (BAK) Programme is New Link Consulting’s structured two-year development pathway designed for early-career professionals who want to build a strong and versatile foundation in financial-services consulting. The programme blends formal training, mentoring and sponsored industry certification with real exposure to client delivery, enabling participants to develop core capabilities in financial and commercial analysis, client relationship management and collaboration. Through placements on live projects with leading financial institutions, participants gain hands-on experience across regulatory change, operational optimisation and transformation initiatives. Each individual is supported by a dedicated "career coach" (mentor) and project lead to ensure continuous growth and guidance throughout the programme. Graduates of the BAK scheme move into Senior Consultant roles, making it a clear and accelerated pathway for long-term career progression within the firm.
The programme consists of modules aligned to four core objective areas: financial & commercial skills, managing client relationships, creating a great company & culture, and developing personal skills (which will encompass training to support and build your financial services knowledge, technical skills and soft skills, as well as sponsorship to obtain an industry recognised certification).
These modules are designed to help you to develop across a number of areas and build your network, whilst supporting our business growth. You will be assessed by formal examinations, interviews, presentations and feedback on the materials you deliver.
During your time on the programme you will work on a number of different client assignments. We will ensure that you have the appropriate training and you'll be part of a New Link Consulting team, specifically put together to ensure an optimal mix of skills and experience.
Your assignments will be great opportunities to develop your relationship management, influencing and stakeholder communication skills.
Assignments will generally be as part of a project delivery team, focusing on such areas as regulatory-driven transformation / remediation, risk and control optimisation, or target operating model design and implementation.
You will be supported by a career coach and an assignment lead. A career coach will provide mentorship and coaching and will work with you to develop your career goals, set objectives, identify development needs and build action plans.
An assignment lead will set your day-to-day deliverables while you are on an assignment and will liaise with your career coach to ensure that your individual development needs are met. Graduation from the scheme is a pre-requisite for promotion to the Senior Consultant grade.
The successful candidate will typically have 18 months to 3 years work experience in financial services, in a consultancy and / or financial institution (such as an investment bank, asset manager or clearing house). We are looking for individuals who display evidence of strong analytical skills and well developed communication and relationship building abilities.
We value people of all levels who demonstrate proactivity in terms of driving both their own career growth, as well as the development of others, in a collaborative way.
We are a young and entrepreneurial consultancy and look to work with dynamic people who bring innovative ideas to both New Link Consulting and our clients.
- Role Title: Analyst or Consultant Analyst (depending on experience) on BA Kinetics Programme.
- Salary & Benefits: dependent on experience, will be discussed during interview stage.
- Location: primarily based in London, although may be required to travel dependent on the specific client assignment.
- Travel: Many of our successful BA Kinetic applicants will have the opportunity to work abroad, to allow them to broaden their cultural knowledge and business experiences, which we see as key in the development of our people.
- Equal Opportunities: we are committed to providing equality of opportunity in all areas, whether in recruitment and selection, promotion or training and development.
My First Day on BA Kinetics
Hi, I’m Adam, the newest member to the BA Kinetics Programme at New Link Consulting. I’ve worked in Financial Services for nearly 4 years across buy side research and also consulting. Here’s a little insight into my first day at New Link Consulting.
Rise and shine!
- A quick breakfast snack before being picked up by a taxi and taken to London City Airport. On my first day at New Link Consulting I am flying out to my first client assignment which will be for one of our European customers
- Having checked in for my flight, I am greeted by members of my new team and start getting to know my new colleagues. Incidentally, Tom Masters, a Partner at New Link Consulting and one of the people I met during the interview process, is the client engagement lead. I am able to quiz him on what to expect and the project plan before we touch down.
Client site
- Upon arrival, an introductory meeting with our client sponsor to discuss the project, expectations, key milestones and objectives, I am encouraged to see the transferable skills I can bring to the table.
- Settling into our desks where we will be based Monday to Friday for the next 4 months, as a team, we begin familiarising ourselves with historic pieces of work, the stakeholders we will encounter and the timeframes available. We create a detailed plan for the duration of our time understanding each other’s key strengths and skills to maximise our outputs.
- A quick intro call with my New Link Consulting Career Coach before I spend the rest of the afternoon learning more about the client organisation and planning content for a senior management meeting in week two. It really is full speed ahead.
1st day is almost over
- Finishing up for the day we head over to the hotel where I will be staying for the rest of the week and the duration of my time on assignment. Quick change of clothes and check out the hotel’s gym facilities, before heading into town for some dinner and team drinks to celebrate the first day with the client, and my first day as a New Link Consultant.
- My first day on the BA Kinetics programme at New Link Consulting has delivered on its promises - not many of my friends are able to travel with work or have a variety of work. It was an exciting way to spend my first 24 hours experiencing a new team, new client and working environment…especially for someone who loves to travel.
Meet Harry
I have been at New Link Consulting for over 6 years, and throughout that time I have worked on a variety of different projects across multiple companies and industries. At New Link Consulting we are thrown immediately into key projects with senior stakeholders and subject matter experts, so after only 6 years I already have a vast pool of experience and a deep skill set of both technical and soft skills.
New Link Consulting has given me the platform to find my feet in the industry, whilst also trusting me to make an impact from day one at every client I have been assigned to. By being heavily involved across many different projects and business functions, I have found myself specializing within the Data Management space due to my interest in the area and the skill set I have developed, despite having no experience in data prior to joining New Link Consulting. This flexibility, trust, and overall range of experiences that New Link Consulting has provided has set me up perfectly for success as a consultant.
Having come through the BA Kinetics program following university, I had focused guidance on how to become a valuable member of a client-site project, and how to support New Link Consulting with their internal development. I quickly found myself with regular exposure to Partners, subject matter experts, and senior staff members throughout my time on BA Kinetics and learned a large amount just by directly working alongside these people. Throughout the program I was able to emphasize the skills I had the most, whilst also highlighting and improving the skills I was less comfortable with. It had both the structure to provide a foundation for my development at the company, and built-in flexibility to allow me to shape myself into the consultant both I and New Link Consulting want me to be.
Top tips for a good Business Analyst
A successful Business Analyst is a sought after asset across the financial services sector, so New Link Consulting have worked with our experienced consultants to share their best tips to becoming a standout Business Analyst.
- Do your research:
Before you approach stakeholders, make sure you are prepared and understand the project methodology that has been adopted. The detail and approach for capturing requirements can vary greatly depending on the project methodology (e.g. Agile versus Waterfall) so make sure this doesn’t catch you out.
- Understand the influencers:
It’s important for a good business analyst to identify the key stakeholders and establish their level of interest and influence early on. Identifying the key influencers on a project will ensure you are engaging with the correct individuals and conducting meaningful conversations that will quickly gain the stakeholders trust.
- Understand the problem statement:
Prior to diving into the detail of understanding your stakeholder’s requirements, it is beneficial to understand the problem statement and the reason for change (regulatory, efficiency, stability etc.). Be aware of your stakeholder’s individual perspectives though, as the problem statement may be different for each. By breaking down the problem statement into meaningful categories you can approach the right stakeholders and extract the right information step-by-step.
- Communication is key:
It is vital that a Business Analyst has great communication skills across varied media. When working with many stakeholders you need to ensure you can communicate across all channels to gain sufficient insight into their vision. The art of a good Business Analyst is being able to understand and simplify.
- Negotiate with conflicting opinions:
When working with multiple stakeholders who will have conflicting priorities it is key that a good Business Analyst can bring conflicting opinions together to reach an amicable compromise. This can be helped by understanding the dynamics of the programme such as: motivations, priorities, costs, benefits, blockers, and many more. Conflict is a possibility and so you must keep a cool head to ensure the best result for your stakeholders and to provide the clearest picture to the ultimate decision maker, the programme sponsor.
- Don’t be afraid to challenge:
A good set of requirements comes from fully understanding the stakeholder’s demands, which comes from a clearly communicated vision. It is the responsibility of the Business Analyst to do the digging to get the detail, so a successful Business Analyst must have the confidence to challenge the stakeholders to ascertain the level of detail required.
- Keep it simple when writing requirements:
Make sure each requirement is standalone and leaves no room for interpretation. Do not use conjunctions like ‘and’, ‘with’, ‘also’ and ‘or’. This can cause confusion, so make sure the requirements are individual statements to keep them clear and concise for the next person to complete their review.
- Relationships are vital:
View every meeting and interaction as an opportunity to expand your network.
The longer you spend in the industry the more valuable your relationships and network will become. Well maintained relationships can often be converted into future commercial opportunities.
