Service Management Placement Review

I really enjoyed my placement at Computacenter. When I first heard of the opportunity, I personally had never heard of Computacenter and was unaware of what they do as they deal business to business. I looked them up online and then quickly learnt that I was applying to a very successful FTSE 250 company with a great reputation among the large scale, global. corporations. My placement enabled me access to very senior individuals in Computacenter which is very rare to find at any other large sized business. I was given autonomy to complete tasks and was treated as an adult as soon as I started. They put trust in my judgement and would regularly ask for my opinion. The culture at Computacenter is phenomenal, very much work hard play hard, My team was very friendly and I was able to get visibility of what various divisions did across the whole company. It was a fantastic placement, it taught me how to behave in a corporate world and made me fall in love with the company.

I felt extremely valued. At all times I was treated like an adult and regularly asked for my input on tasks. As an IT company, they understand the importance of keeping relevant and current and therefore were more than welcoming to an opinion from a 'fresh pair of eyes'. The placement program gives you access to senior management who are always very keen to develop you. I made some great friends/colleagues on my placement and at no point felt like the 'placement student'. For university I created a project based on business initiatives at Computacenter - even after the placement program they were keen to look at my project to see what I had discovered.

I was given continual support throughout the program from various managers around the business. I was given a clear escalation path for if I ever wanted to raise a concern. On the first day of joining Computacenter as a placement student we were given training on our division - this provided us with a rough baseline to start with. We had regular monthly 121's with our line managers where they would check on our progress and see what development areas we needed to focus on. Management always made sure we got the most out of our placement and most importantly worked with my university to ensure that both our objectives and outcomes were aligned.

On this placement, you get as much out of it as you put in. You are not spoon fed things to do, but it all depends on whether you want the autonomy to run your own diary and be treated like an adult or be micromanaged and given daily tasks to complete. At Computacenter you are treated like an adult and I would not have it any other way. I made sure that most days I was busy. This would either be by networking with other teams, developing my learning, going on training courses, asking my team where I can assist, working on university project, attending team meetings and carrying out proactive analysis for Computacenter. By going the extra mile to make sure my diary was always full - I was able to get so much out of my placement. I built incredibly strong relationships - so much so that I even managed to extend my contract for a further 3 months to increase my knowledge and grow my chances of getting a job at Computacenter for when I had graduated.

I was given full responsibility with every task I was given. I was not thrown in the deep end though. Each task was fully explained and they ensured that I had all the knowledge needed before I went off and completed it on my own. They trusted my knowledge, judgement and intelligence. I was very impressed with how much responsibility I was given. I know from speaking to other students that this was not the case - so I was very happy to be treated just like a member of the team. They trusted me with a variety of tasks.

By proving myself, being determined and building a strong network whilst on my year placement I was able to build the foundations of landing myself my dream job for after I graduate.

Fun and lively. There was office banter and people were always up for a laugh. On top of this people were very hardworking and there is a good balance between working time and having fun.

It was very well organised. The whole 12 months was very well thought out. I had a clear plan and I knew where I was and where I needed to be. I was impressed with the involvement of the placement team. We were assigned mentors that guided us throughout the process and kept us updated with any changed to the 12 month set up. I was very impressed with how much thought and effort had gone into the organisation of the placement program.

The level of investment from the company was HUGE. I was given the opportunity to attend funded training courses so I could further develop my skills. These courses were free as the company decided i was worth investing in. I then went back to uni equipped with a mass of developed skills and a new found level of confidence.

I will be 100% returning to Computacenter. They have a highly regarded graduate program that I am looking to go on when I finish uni. I am so pleased I applied for Computacenter as I now have a clear career path at a company I love waking up and going into every day. Do not let the fact that it is a relatively unknown consumer brand name put you off as otherwise you really are missing out on the opportunity of a lifetime to work for a FTSE 250 company who has strong relationships with many of the FTSE100 businesses.

Amazing social scene. Fantastic christmas party and regular lunches and casual drinks down the pub with your colleagues.

London - So cost was high. But the salary provided more than covered this.

Amazing - It was london so variety of pubs,clubs,bars,restaurants to chose from

Yes - football teams was one of them