Demand Management Review

I have thoroughly enjoyed my placement year at Cummins. I have had the opportunity to grow and develop skills whilst being exposed to a very active and interesting business market. I have had the opportunity to network and learn off a great group of employees that I have worked with during my year that have also helped me to mature and communicate in a professional environment.

The colleagues and my team that I have worked with this year have been fantastic. From a professional view I have learnt how to be more efficient, resourceful and professional within a role which will hopefully benefit me greatly in the future. From a personal view my colleagues are all incredibly welcoming and have also been very supportive to me over the year.

Over my placement year I was constantly given support and guidance whenever I needed it. This varied from the smaller, less noticeable guidance such as how to communicate with colleagues or how to structure emails. At the other end of the spectrum when leading projects and tasks their guidance has been extremely useful as to how to best take these projects forward.

I think I had a good balance as to how busy I was on a daily basis. I always had a strong structure of daily tasks that I had to complete within my role to allow me to be successful. On top of this I had workload from projects that I was leading or was a apart of. This balance of daily tasks to complete, alongside one off project work gave me a really good balance of workload throughout the year and kept me busy.

I feel I was given the right amount of responsibility for the role I was playing within the organisation. I was given levels of responsibility that would allow me to experience leading tasks, which would in turn give me a greater scope to develop my skills. However I was never given so much responsibility that I was forces to make business critical decisions or decisions that I felt uncomfortable with.

The skills and knowledge I have developed and improved on this year will help me greatly within my future academic studies and also my future career. During my year I have become increasingly aware of how important things such as clear communications, relationships with colleagues and team working are. However my placement year has also shown me how important things such as diversity and cross functional teams are which is something that will benefit me in all areas of my future.

Overall my office has a good atmosphere. For the majority of the time it is relaxed and quite which allows you to focus on workload and completing tasks to a high standard. However the layout and relationships with colleagues allowed me to have a laugh regularly within the office and plenty of fun throughout the day.

My placement overall was very well organised. Before I started there were introduction days where we met the other placement students and could ask questions to the then current placement students. The application and interviewing stage was very well structured and throughout the placement we had structured events such as training etc which we made available to us.

Cummins really does invest into developing its employees through training. As placements we were subject to four mandatory trainings aimed at developing communication, leadership, team working and business awareness and professionalism. I have also had the opportunity to train as an internal auditor. Cummins also has quarterly reviews with managers which areas to potentially develop are identified.

I believe the prospect of a future graduate role within the organisation are quite high. Cummins is recognised for taking graduates on after university and within the current pool of placements hold a bursary process to identify potential employees that they may like to offer or consider for graduate roles within the future.

During my placement year there has been an excellent social scene amongst the other placement students. We have regularly done activities in and outside of work such as an internal bowling competition and playing a weekly 5 a side football game between the placement students. The high numbers of placement students that Cummins takes on really allows for this social scene to happen in my opinion.

The cost of living within Ramsgate is relatively cheap. I share a 3 bedroom flat with 2 other placement students and we each pay £250 a month for accommodation which I believe to be very reasonable. Socialising in the local environment isn't to amazing but I have been part of the local rugby team for the year and this has made it much more enjoyable.

To be honest the night life where I am living really isn't too great. There are a few small bar type venues in Ramsgate but if you are really looking for a club and a Uni type night out then you would have to go into one of the nearby towns such as Canterbury for this.

Within the local area there are a few activities which I have been involved in outside of work. As previously stated I have been a member of the local rugby team this year but also have been playing five a side football with the other placement students on a weekday evening.