Business Systems Analyst Review

I enjoyed the placement very much as I worked on many interesting initiatives and got to work with a lot of experienced individuals. The placement provided me with a very good exposure to an established IT function that supports various modes of transport and impacts millions of people every day.

My colleagues valued my work and my input throughout my time at TfL. As I learnt more about the company and how it operates I was able to contribute even further thus becoming an integral part of the team. My colleagues involved me in interesting work initiatives and allowed me to participate by providing my input.

Throughout my time at TfL I was always adequately supported and all my support needs were cared for. Placement manager, the sponsor, HR representative and project manager provided me with various levels of support. In addition, existing graduates were very supportive as I could approach them whenever I needed assistance with a particular issue.

During my first couple of weeks I was learning about what the team does and how TfL works as a whole. The work picked up from there onwards and I was assigned to work on multiple projects. Overall it was a good work-life balance as I was kept busy during my day but at no point struggling with the workload.

The responsibility increased as the time went on throughout the year. I was gaining more experience and learning from other members of the team thus I was given projects to carry out by myself. Although I was carrying out projects by myself, I always had support from the project team and other related teams.

TfL provided wide range of internal and external training which supported me through my time at TfL and when I came back to university. The external training was industry recognised and can be applied to most organisations. I further developed my organisation, analytical and teamwork skills that cannot be taught by any training and have to be attained through experience. These skills assisted me through my last year of university as I had to work in multiple groups and use these skills on a regular basis.

People in the office are generally really friendly and are always willing to help. During events everyone gets involved and discusses them which improves the atmosphere as it is not solely based on work. During festivals such as Diwali people brought in snacks and shared them which was really nice. Everyone got involved during Christmas period to transform the office and make it much more festival.

The placement was very well set up as I joined the graduates for their one week induction initially and got to learn about TfL as a whole. During the following weeks I was learning about my specific area. The year in industry scheme is closely linked with the graduate scheme which meant that I was closely involved in what the graduates were doing.

At the end of the placement I had an opportunity to fast-track into the graduate scheme. Once on the graduate scheme there are multiple opportunities to move around and work in different departments. The department I worked in during my placement is very big thus this could present me with multiple opportunities in the future.

The social atmosphere was fairly good. Fellow scheme students went out from time to time but these events were self-organised most of the time. The graduate Christmas event was one of the only few events that was officially organised for the graduates. I would have liked for more social events to be organised for the graduates. In addition, there were sporting events organised on a weekly basis by some of my colleagues which I attended and really enjoyed.

TfL is based in London which is relatively expensive but I was able to manage.