Commercial Marketing Executive Review

My time at Baxter has exceeded my expectations of placement in every way. The opportunities on offer to allow me to develop in my role has been over and beyond what I could have imagined a student would be offered on placement. It was clear from day one that Baxter Healthcare genuinely care about the development and experience of their placement students and this is testament to the knowledge and experience that I gained from my experience with the company in a relatively small amount of time.

I am fortunate enough to be in a role where I play an integral part of the operations of two teams. I have been fortunate enough to have been given responsibilities that ensure that I have real accountability for all my tasks, which in turn makes me feel incredibly valued by my colleagues.

My manager has been brilliant in ensuring that I have had every possibility to grow both my knowledge and personal development whilst on placement. In addition to my marketing role, I expressed an interest in learning more about sales and my manager was great in putting me in touch with our sales colleagues to learn from their experiences. The company also heavily invests in training their employees in key areas that support their roles, so I was fortunate enough to attend courses such as presenting skills that really build my confidence when I needed to present to my colleagues.

On a daily basis I am never short of work to complete, which has been really beneficial as it allowed me to get involved in a range of different projects. My manager is really accommodating in letting me get involved in the projects that interest me and has helped me use the skills I gained during my time at university to get the most out of my placement.

My role involves supporting the day-to-day operations across two marketing teams which has meant that I have been given a significant amount of responsibility whilst on placement. Some of my tasks involves supporting sales teams and maintaining customer promotional materials which means that the work I carry out has an impact on not only my team's work, but colleagues in different deparments as well.

Baxter have been great in allowing me me develop my skills by focusing on projects that I have had experience in from university modules. In some cases I realised that there were some areas of my role that involved skills I wasn't experienced in and I was then given training to make sure that I felt confident completing those skills. Overall, the areas of the business that I have been involved with has meant that I am much more informed on exactly what modules I want to specialise in during my last year of university.

The atmosphere in the office is relaxed, which really does make all the difference. All of the different departments work closely on projects together so it's a friendly culture among the teams in the office. At Baxter even the students speak to the General Manager, so there are no barriers with senior management like there are in a lot of other companies.

The placement scheme at Baxter is very well organised. An induction day is arranged for the students before the start date so that they can meet their team and get to know the office better before the two week handover with the current placement student once they start. Each student then creates a development plan with their manager and is also allocated a mentor in a different department of the company. Monthly student catch ups with HR are also organised throughout the placement so if there do happen to be any problems or issues they can be raised.

The company invests a lot in their students, and treat their training/development as if they were a full time employee. Compulsory training courses such as communicating and presentating skills are completed by each student, with informal training on the internal systems also given to new starters. If there is anything that a student needs additional training on for their role, managers are great at making sure training is organised so that they feel confident in their role.

All placement students are offered the opportunity to apply to return as the graduate after they have completed their final year of university, including rotations in the marketing, sales and contracts departments. Although, during the placement year itself, the company is very accommodating in encouraging students to learn about all areas of the business so that they are aware of the other career opportunities available in business that may differ from their degree subject at university.

In my placement all of the students get on very well and relate to what each other were working on in their own individual roles. We arrange lots of regular socials (either nights out or after work meals) and have the opportunity to go to either of the two local towns (Reading or Newbury) or the local country pubs near the office. A social committee also arrange office activities such as the Christmas Lunch and individual teams often spend time on Birthdays and Christmas celebrating together.

The location of the office is great as there are a lot of choice in where to live and commute from on placement. Students either live in Reading nearby where they is a lot of choice for student accommodation or around the Newbury area. As the office is located in a nearby village setting there are several great nearby country pubs for socialising after work, or Reading and Newbury are nearby towns with a good range of affordable clubs/bars for student socials.

As the office is located in a village, the nearest towns (Reading or Newbury) are the best options for student socials. Reading has a great range of restaurants/bars and clubs and Newbury has great pubs and is not far from the office to drive to. Both towns are affordable nights out, which is great for students on a tight budget (especially if they live nearby or can share travel with other students).

All of the students on placement are jointly responsible for organising office activities around global company initiatives including healthy eating, exercising, and healthy living. A budget is allocated for this, which meant on my placement all of the students worked together to create office competitions/events and even worked with a local agency to design and produce a recipe leaflet for the office employees.