Business Analyst Review

My placement has been a mixture of feelings. I have enjoyed meeting new people, learning about business (something entirely different to my degree pathway), and having a lot of responsibility to work on big projects and tasks. However, a lot of the work has been repetitive and I feel that I haven't got to cover as much of the different parts of the business that I would have liked.

By my colleagues that work around me and my new boss, I do feel that I am a valued member of the team. Although I work in one particular part of the business, I do work with a lot of other people in different departments and I am always there to help them with things. However, at the beginning of my placement I didn't feel the same way but it has improved greatly since the start of this year.

As I have had two supervisors since I have started my placement, I will talk about them both. My first manager - although I did get help only when I asked for it - left me to work things out for myself but when I made a mistake I would get shouted and made to feel stupid. The first 6 months with my first manager weren't enjoyable. My second manager however is the opposite - always coming to talk to me to see how I am, if I need any help with anything and is always encouraging me to learn new things and improve my learning. So these last 5 and a half months have been good.

As I work around a cycle, I am extremely busy the first 2 weeks of every month. The second 2 weeks are a lot less busy but I still have work to do. I have started a project with my current manager which keeps me busy when I have completed the cycle but before I started it I would be sitting some days actually looking for things to do.

I do like being given reponsibility for the work that I do, it allows me to become a more independent worker and helps me improve my problem solving skills. However, at the start of my placement with my first manager, I was giving too much too soon and caused a lot of problems for people around the business. I wasn't trained correctly and therefore made errors in crucial files. There was too much responsibility put on to me - someone who had never worked in a business like this before or worked with the different files and numbers. It was very difficult. Now, it is the perfect balance as I know how everything works and I have someone else working with me.

Even though what I have been doing this past year is completely different to my degree, I have learned invaluable skills that I will carry with me through every job that I will ever have. I have learned to be more punctual, to manage my time better, work with different people in different departments in my own location and around the world, how a business works, what is expected of people and many more. I will never forget what I have learned.

The office atmosphere was always pleasant to be in because everyone is really nice and would always have a chat when possible. The people I work more closely with and those that work beside me are the best and are the only reason that I have stayed on my placement for the full duration. There are only a handful of people who haven't treated me with the same decorum as everyone else - in which some actually made me want to finish my placement early because it was being made difficult for me.

At the start of my placement, I didn't actually get to see my manager until 3 weeks after I started. I was being taught by the current placement student at the time, but it turned out when she had left I was shown very little of what I needed to know and therefore had a lot of problems, so the training at the beginning was poor. There were no steps in place for my training, it was basically me just sitting and watching the placement student do the work - it was very unorganised. It was expected from the manager that everything that I would need to know would have been covered before the other placement student left, whcih was not the case and I was shown very little of what I needed to know.

Following on from what I said in the previous question, I was very much left to myself. I was treated as an employee instead of a placement student which is a good thing in a sense, but not when I am new to this type of work. I have been doing the same work that I was doing in June last year when I started - only some things have changed. It was only until I got a new manager (current supervisor) that he wanted me to learn new things and has invested his time in getting me working on a new project and working with new people. This is something I would have loved to have happened months ago but with my previous manager, it just wasn't going to happen.

As seen on the news, the company has been cutting a lot of jobs around the world - Northern Ireland being one of the biggest plants, has let go of a lot of jobs. I don't believe I will get a graduate job here because of these cuts but that could all change in the next year. As for if I would like to work here again, as my placment hasn't been the most enjoyable I am not sure if here is where I would want to work after I graduate - not in my current role anyway. I have learned a lot but this type of work isn't for me.

I have only met 2 students on placement the same as me and I rarely get to speak to them. There are no opportunities to get out with them or any events held for placement students to meet up - it is shocking. I only get to socialise with my colleagues who work around me at breaks and lunch but there are no social activities for everyone to get out and enjoy themselves. This is something which has made my time here not so enjoyable,

I live at home so the cost of living me currently is very low. I only need to pay for fuel to get to and from work and my phone bill. I would go out in Belfast with my friends at the weekends which isn't too expensive but I wouldn't go out in the location where my work is - the only places I have been are a restaurant for Christmas lunch and the shop for some food. Apart from that, there isn't much to do in the area.

Like above, I don't go out in the area where I work. Larne doesn't offer much nightlife and I would only travel here for work or to visit some friends that live here. For nightlift I would travel to Belfast which is only 15/20 minutes from where I live, and that offers a lot more to in terms of bars and clubs.

In Larne there is nothing that I would be interested in as there isn't much in the town. For activities for my friends and I, we would travel to Belfast or go for drives and find something to do. There are golf clubs, football pitches and beaches that we would all go to.