"You Belong Where You Are" - John Williams & Andrew Warrington

John Williams, a Senior Analyst at Accenture in Chicago, had to convince his parents that he had a job when he joined a paid apprenticeship at age 19. Little did they know that this position would give him the training, mentorship, and camaraderie he needed to thrive. Williams is a member of the 2026 cohort of Illinois Apprentice Ambassadors. He is joined in conversation by Co-Chair of the Illinois Workforce Innovation Board (IWIB) and CEO of UCC Environmental, Andrew Warrington, who reflects on how his own apprenticeship experience in the U.K. inspired him to help expand apprenticeship presence in the U.S. after emigrating here 27 years ago.

What they both found is that the best of the best feel imposter syndrome. If you push through, you'll find that "you belong where you are." 

To learn more about apprenticeships, go to ApprenticeshipIL.com and follow Apprenticeship Illinois on LinkedIn. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

The Apprentice Ambassador Program selects an annual cohort of star current or former apprentices to represent a wide variety of industries throughout Illinois. During their year in the cohort, apprentice ambassadors serve as guest speakers at business events to showcase the impact apprenticeship has had on them, their families, and their companies. The Apprentice Perspective brings their stories to you, our listeners.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Hello and welcome to today's episode of The Apprentice Perspective. My name is Andrew Warrington, and I'm the CEO at the UCC Environmental, which is in Waukegan, Illinois. I'll be your host for this episode. And today I'm joined by our Apprentice Ambassador, John Williams. Hi everyone.

SPEAKER_02 0:39

My name is John Williams. I am currently a senior analyst at Accenture based out of Chicago, Illinois, and an apprentice graduate.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

So I'll I'll tell you why apprenticeship is important to me. I was an apprentice years ago when I worked in uh in England. I'm I'm an engineer and I did an apprenticeship with a utility company, funnily enough, as an engineer in a nuclear power station. So that that was why I'm interested now in apprenticeships. And in this country, they've kind of gone out of fashion apart from folks that are in the trades. But now, as as you can demonstrate, John, you know, we've got apprenticeships in in loads of different um areas. And so, you know, why don't you tell us a little bit about why apprenticeships are interesting to you?

SPEAKER_02 1:22

I love apprenticeships. I won't I will say that because especially being someone who works in tech, because if you look into the hiring atmosphere of tech, it's all these, you know, you you go on YouTube and you type, you know, oh, I'm uh how to get hired at at uh any company or uh a big tech company. There's like, okay, well, you need all of this training, um, you need to learn these languages, and you're gonna have to do um a coding interview and you have to prep, you gotta, you know, do lead code questions all day, every day. And just that alone is is doable. Anybody can do it. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it can be um intimidating. Having the fear of like, oh man, I'm I'm I'm doing these lead code questions, but what if they give me one that I've never seen in, or or or what if what if I just I don't know the actual language, the language that they they work with? And with an apprenticeship, it's kind of like the step before you can you can you can have those trainings. It's a step before you get to the coding process. They they can help you get to that point. And I think that's super, super important. It gets rid of that intimidation of that initial leap into the hiring. So I I think they're I love them. I love the apprenticeship program.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

Yeah, if you can work and learn at the same time, I think that's an awesome, awesome reason why apprenticeships are are great. And and so with that in mind, you know, it's it's a little bit of an unconventional uh route to a job. And let tell me a little bit about what were your worries, your your own or your family's, what was at the back of your mind when you started the apprenticeship? Uh and what has happened to those concerned concerns over time?

SPEAKER_02 2:59

I mean, as I say that I was definitely worried that I would run into a coding interview that I wasn't going to be able to pass. Beyond that, it was a big thing I feared was I guess the community. I didn't know because again, I was 19 when I first started. And I was still I was still in school as I was an apprentice. So I didn't know if I would necessarily fit in with the culture here at a corporate company like Accenture. Um, but immediately as I started that, that went away. And I was able to meet people who were uh, if not my age, around my age, who were also apprentices. There were people who were slightly older than me that were full-time employees, so I knew that you know I could I could make it through. And also it's funny you you brought up what my parents thought. They I worked from home and my parents thought they did not think I was hired, they didn't think I had a job. They thought um that I just I made it up, I guess, but then I was actually getting paid. Yeah, exactly. But then I was getting paid, and it was like, oh wait, you you do actually you have a job. So nice, nice.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

You had to show them their paycheck. Yeah. I did. Awesome. I I think that that leads us to another question, which is where when was it in in the process of your apprenticeship that it really clicked for you that it was working? This was something that benefited you and the company. And by the way, you said you started when you were 19. I'm guessing that most people who join Accenture uh normally go to college and they're not 19. So there's another benefit to get into it much earlier, right? But what what when did you figure out that this is the right way for you and the company?

SPEAKER_02 4:34

Once my project put me on the on their on call schedule. The first time was very intimidating and I was very scared. And I was like, oh, I'm gonna be up all night, I'm gonna get pinged, they're gonna, I'm gonna get calls at 3 a.m. in the morning, which has happened, but that was later. Thank God. But the second time around, once I was once I was comfortable with it, I was like, okay, this is something I can do. Not only am I helping the client a lot, but this I'm learning a lot from from what I'm doing. Um, this is great, you know, experience that I'm gaining. This is the career that I'm on.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

Okay, John, why did you start an apprenticeship?

SPEAKER_02 5:10

I started an apprenticeship because, well, it begins in high school. I was in an internship program called Genesis Works. What Genesis does is they they allow high school students to intern at Fortune 500 companies in the city in Chicago, kind of get experience in the corporate world. A couple of years later, while I was in school, they reached out to me about the apprenticeship program. And I felt like it was an opportunity I needed to take because Genesis Works, they they had already given me so much experience in the corporate world. I felt like if I if I had that, I can, I can, I this is my way into it to start my career. How about yourself?

SPEAKER_00 5:46

Yeah, well, I I have a pretty similar story. I I actually left school when I was 16 years old and and uh got a place at a technical college or a uh like a community college, uh, doing what I wanted to do, which was really engineering. So that was very practical work, and I did that for uh for two years until I was 18. And then I was fortunate enough to uh to get a place at uh university at a polytechnic university, which which was like a baccalaureate uh community college, if you like, uh, that had an apprenticeship built into it. We we were required to go for two six-month periods through that four-year program to work at a at a company. And that company that I managed to find a place at was a power company, and they owned power stations, coal-fired power stations and nuclear power stations. And I got immediately to write software, just like you do, on coal-fired power stations initially, which I thought was an amazing uh that they would even let me do that. And I I used to play around with it. I also was on coal uh and I got some pretty scary calls when I was 20 years old. Didn't manage to break anything too expensive, fortunately. When I moved, when I immigrated to to the United States 27 years ago, I was shocked that they didn't have that program, that they didn't have an apprenticeship type program. And um uh that's one of the reasons why I got involved in workforce development was we I didn't know when I was running a manufacturing business uh in Indianapolis at the time where we were gonna hire people for CNC machine tools and these very complicated, expensive things that we uh we need. And so we started to talk about apprentices, and I think in Illinois now we're we're uh very well advanced with that. We're getting to the end of today's episode. Uh John, this last section is called Sound Bite Sentence. I'm gonna ask you a question and you can answer in one brief sentence. Does that sound good? Sound good. All right. First question mentorship is a vital part of apprenticeships. I've had some great mentors over the over the years that I I could name, and I still think of them today, 30 years later. But what's some advice that really changed your mindset and that you'd like to pass along to other apprentices?

SPEAKER_02 7:56

The the number one uh piece of advice that I've I've gotten is it's that you belong where you are. And this is obviously not going to be a brief that was my that was my brief sentence. You it was you belong where you are. But in the beginning, I did feel I was experiencing, keep going. Yeah, I was experiencing uh you know a bit of imposter syndrome because I felt like you know, I'm very young. I'm I'm I'm working with people who have been in this industry for 30 plus years. Uh I don't know if I I should be here, but talking to talking to these people, they they always reassure me that you know you made it here and and you belong to be here.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

So right, yeah, right. And I I would I would say the same thing, you know, that most of the people who are good at their jobs have that. If you don't, I I think that might actually be a little bit of a problem. Next question. If you could speak directly to the people who open the door for you, what would you say to them?

SPEAKER_02 8:48

If I could speak to them, which technically I do still speak to them, I tell them uh thank you. Um and I'm I'm forever grateful for the opportunities that have been presented. Uh next question is um Cubs or White Sox? I am a White Sox fan from the South Side, born and raised. I'm a White Sox fan.

SPEAKER_00 9:11

I'm I'm from Manchester City or United.

SPEAKER_02 9:14

I I I'm not big in uh into soccer, but I did play. I think it was a I think I had to be like FIFA 2013, 2012, and I always pick Manchester. I always pick Manchester.

SPEAKER_00 9:25

Yeah, that's right. Well, uh yeah, people from Manchester are city, and you have to be a foreigner to be a United fan, it turns out. But anyway, Leslie, how is your vision of the future shifted because of your apprenticeship? It has completely shifted.

SPEAKER_02 9:39

Um, when I was young, I used to make music, and I thought I was gonna do the music thing, but I also have always had a love for computers more than anything. I thought I was gonna, I thought I was gonna do the music thing, you know. I thought that was gonna be what I did, but going into college and through Genesis Works, and especially now with especially getting into the apprenticeship, it has completely changed that vision. And for the better, I will say for the better. It's my I have a clear path ahead uh path ahead, and and that's uh kind of I feel like what I needed.

SPEAKER_00 10:14

So that's great. And I'm gonna throw in another question here. Um, so after your apprenticeship, you were hired by Accenture, right? What it what are you doing now?

SPEAKER_02 10:23

I was hired on as an analyst as of last year. I was promoted to senior analyst, but I was on I was on that utilities client uh for five years up until last March. And now I'm I'm on a um uh social media. My current project is with a social media uh company. It's been tougher than my last one, but it's it's always I'm always learning. That's a part of the job.

SPEAKER_00 10:45

That's awesome. It's it's great to to hear this success story, and you've you've spoken so well about the reasons why people should consider both from an employer point of view, you know, how how are you gonna find the next people that that are gonna be as good as you are, and and also from a from an apprentice point of view, of getting that opportunity to work, earn, and learn at the same time. I think it's awesome. So thanks very much for for your time uh today, I think it's been a really interesting uh discussion, and I'll hand it back to our host.

SPEAKER_01 11:13

I'm actually gonna have one more question for both of you. What do you want people to walk away with from this episode? What do you want people to do next?

SPEAKER_00 11:22

We'll fight over it. Um and if we're talking about employers, uh the the big question that's that's around today is the population of Illinois is declining. The competition for great talent is is gonna be a feature of our lives for the foreseeable future. So the question that you've got to ask yourself as an employer is where am I gonna get people from? And it isn't gonna come from the traditional way of waiting for folks to graduate. So you're gonna have to look in different places for for people with different backgrounds, people that don't have the normal formula that that you've you've has been successful for you in the past. And I think one of the tools that's available to all employers in Illinois, and Illinois is putting in a lot of money to this, and the Illinois Workforce Investment Board is is is driving, is the apprenticeship and train them in the way that you do business, uh with a little bit of help from some government money, but also uh all of the eco-sphere that that we've got in Illinois to go and make sure that you get awesome employees that you have trained in the way that that you want them, that are prepared for the future, uh, that can stay with you for for a long, long time and grow with with your business.

SPEAKER_02 12:35

I 100% agree. I think I guess that will that's something that I want to say or or I guess agree with here is these avenues are going to be uh especially in the future because there's talent all over the place, especially in somewhere like Chicago. There's going to be talent all over the place, but people aren't always exposed to the same opportunities to to to show off their talent or even gain the skills to get that talent. Using you know the apprenticeship program uh and the ambassador program, it's it's important to to highlight something like an apprenticeship program can do and and why businesses and employers should should definitely look into the apprenticeship program as a whole.

SPEAKER_00 13:17

And and people looking for a job. I mean, you don't have to be 19 years old to do the apprenticeship, you can be 59 years old like me. You can there's no reason why you can't start an apprenticeship at any stage if you want to change direction in your careers. And um, you know, if you go to the Apprenticeship Illinois website, you'll you'll learn how to do it either as an apprentice or as an employer. So thanks very much, John. Yes, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

To learn more about apprenticeships, go to apprenticeshipillinois.com. Thank you for joining us for this episode, and we look forward to seeing you next time on the apprentice perspective.