Sales & Marketing executive Review

The placement wasn't the role I expected it was more of an admin position rather than an industrial placement role. The role didn't provide me with enough opportunities to develop and had limited responsibility. My team were field based which meant that my role was isolated and I didn't feel well supported. - Note - this has been removed as a placement position at Mars and has been replaced by an admin person.

I rarely saw my colleagues and was only contacted to be given minor tasks the majority of the time. If I worked on an important task such as one of the customer engagement days, I felt more valued as I was central to the organisation of the day and would receive recognition for doing a good job.

My manager was often ill, rarely in the office and didn't have that much to do with my role, Therefore support was limited and I only had a meeting with her on average once a month. It's difficult when you start the placement, you don't know how much support you should be given and whether it is ok to ask for more. I realised towards the end of the placement that I should have been asking for the right level of support from the beginning, whether from my manager, HR or the rest of the team.

It was variable some days I had hardly any work and was constantly asking for more, others I had far too many tasks and had to work evenings to meet deadlines. It was normal practice in my team to work long hours, I often received emails from managers on weekends and evenings.

Responsibility varied, sometimes I was organising customer engagement days alongside a manager others I was doing general admin such as printing for my colleagues and fetching tea and coffee.

I attended several training courses some of which were beneficial. I learned a lot about the company, the roles available in FMCG, the different departments, what good business practice looks like and about team work. I learned a great deal about myself, how I work, the type of environment and role I need in the future which will be invaluable for me particularly when looking at graduate jobs.

The general atmosphere was ok, it was fine to chat with people and go for a coffee, but everyone did work hard it often felt like you were disturbing them to ask a question at times. There is a break out area which is great for informal meetings. It felt like the company was set up for a good atmosphere and some teams and areas were great to work in, others not so much.

The intro week was great, we met all the other placement students and toured some of the Mars offices and saw different departments. After this there was very little contact with HR. I contacted HR - future talent team who looks after the placement students to ask for help when I realised my placement wasn't what a placement should be and despite the sympathy the main response was this isn't our responsibility to help you talk to a different department in HR. Towards the end of the placement I worked with them to ensure that the new placement students would all have more support and know what support is available if needed and what a placement role should look like.

I went on quite a few courses some were relevant to my role and others not. I think the company has the best intentions and the courses can be good but the timings can be wrong for teams and a lot of people aren't engaged in the course because of too much work and are constantly leaving to take phone calls and ignoring the instructors.

There is the opportunity to apply for direct entry or graduate scheme roles if you did well in your placement. The conversion rate for placement or interns to graduate roles is very low. I won't be applying for roles in the company in the future.

We were introduced via email when we signed the contracts, unfortunately different departments hire at different times which lead to some students living together and others not. We were reasonably social and met up regularly but it would depend on who the placement students are.

The office is based in Slough which isn't a great area. The placement students that lived there did not enjoy it despite the slightly lower cost. Others lived in Windsor which was a much nicer area but very expensive to rent in. If you went out you would have to go to Windsor which is almost London prices ad nothing like University prices we were all used to.

You had to go to Windsor, it wasn't great.

There was a gym and some clubs but they weren't well advertised.