Insight Analyst Review

I really enjoyed my time on placement, I felt like I was valued as an employee and given a great deal of responsibility.

My colleagues helped me through my placement acting as mentors and always giving a helping hand where needed, I really appreciated the time they took out of their busy working days to help me out.

My manager over the course of my placement has been excellent and has ensured she's provided me with support throughout the year, we have had regular 1-2-1 meetings to keep up to date with both in and outside giving all the support I have needed to really enjoy my time here.

My workload was varied throughout my time on placement going from very quiet to almost manic periods when an urgent piece of work was needed; this was very common throughout my team as a lot of our work was on an hoc basic and a very tight time scale. Although, there was always work to be done and more analysis to be carried out so in that sense it was as busy as you made yourself, which worked out great when needing some free time to get your university assignments underway.

During my time on placement I was given a large amount of responsibility this built up over the course of the year after I had displayed my skill set, I was given numerous reports to run that went to very high levels of the business and was trusted to get these out accurately and on time on a daily/weekly/monthly basis.

I would say over the course of my placement year I have learnt a variety of skills that I will be able to take back to university and use in future employment but the way I have developed as a person over the course of this year will be my real benefit. The programmes I have learnt and computer based skills will all come in useful however the way my confidence has grown will be a huge benefit to me in the future a long with a whole other list of skills I've developed and acquired.

The office atmosphere was normally a very positive vibe, although being based in the head office it was much more corporate than others. Everyone around was always friendly though and up for a quick chat and always up for anything charity related, I've worked in a couple of the others offices on numerous occasions too and they're always very positive and upbeat.

In terms of the actual work within my team and direct line manager I feel it was very well organised, however there could have been some improvement around intern days and input from the talent team as there we times that both me and my manger were unsure on certain things as they had not been communicated out effectively, although speaking to the interns for next year a lot of these things seem to have been cleared up.

The company have invested a great deal in our training and offer a variety of opportunities, again it really comes down to how much you put in and how interested you are in developing your skills. If there are certain programmes that you would like to learn then there is bound to be an expert on it somewhere in Virgin Media that will be willing to teach you, your teams will do their best to try and arrange time for this in your normal working hours.

There are a lot of opportunities for your future career at Virgin Media, there a variety of graduate schemes that can be applied to as well as numerous other job opportunities that you could apply for. They offer a very competitive salary and great on the job training as well as numerous qualifications in certain schemes.

There was a great social scene especially as the majority of us lived together in two houses, this meant that we really bonded outside of work and had a great intern community. The only issue with this was we didn't tend to mix with the other employees as much although this will all be down to personal preference, it was great having the other interns there for support and we all have got on really well over the course of the year, definitely making friends for life.

We actually chose to like around 20 miles from the office as there were more options available and it was much easier to get to for us all but it's not been too bad, the cost of living is fairly high when working in the head office as it's near to London although it outside so not extortionate in anyway! I've lived away from home with other interns and have found the wage very reasonable being able to go out and socialise without having to worry about money too much.

I lived in Reading so it is primarily a student town meaning there is a decent nightlife, although with working in the week it tends to be a bit quieter and a hell of a lot more expensive on the weekends. The head office is based in a small village so apart from the local pub you're not going to find much nightlife around although it's only an hours train ride away from London city centre.

There were a variety of opportunities in the local community and also provided in work to get involved with people from different departments.