Work Experience Review

I enjoyed the insight to the point where I knew that it would look fantastic on my CV and would make me stand out from other students. However I just feel the week was too slow, and there was not enough work shadowing which would have developed skills a lot better through putting them into practice as well as learning from mistakes. Think it would have been more enjoyable for 15/16 year olds.

I wouldn't say I felt valued as we didn't do much work shadowing to feel valued. It was more of a case of completing a few sessions which weren't very challenging. The woman who ran it was nice however I don't think it would be appropriate to say I felt 'valued' as we weren't - we were just there to gain skills which you would only gain really if you had majorly excluded yourself from the world.

I feel we got guidance and support during the insight through feedback after activities, mock interviews etc. Also those who were applying for the apprentice scheme seemed to get support and advice in feedback but this didn't apply to everyone as when speaking to people they seemed to just be there because it looked good on their CV.

Personally, I believe that a lot of the insight week didn't help develop our skills for my degree or beyond. For example, a hand shaking exercise - if you get to the age of 18+ and can't shake someones hand correctly then do the polite thing and go teach yourself don't waste the rest of our time. Another was business etiquette, again if you get to this age and aren't aware of basic business etiquette, for example looking interested in what someone is saying, then you really shouldn't have got on the insight week for a business like Deloitte in the first place. The mock interview's were good, but should have been done independently not in a group - there would have been time had the group not had to waste a day and a half on a case study which was basically the same thing we had done in an afternoon session 2 days prior.

The event was structured and well organised by the woman as everything was planned. However it's just the amount of time spent on certain things which is why the 5 stars, as a day and a half on a case study was not needed at all. Half a day would have been sufficient plus I think it would have challenged people more. As a whole things were too long for what they were (another example is I don't need to be told how to communicate for 30/45 mins, followed by team work. Both could have been done at the same time as most was waffle).

When talking to people we all tried to make the most of it and we all knew how great it would look on a CV so this kept the atmosphere up however there were a lot of times when we were bored and unchallenged. Mainly due to the length of activities which didn't need to be as long as they were.

The firm obviously had spent money on providing the week, for example, booking a conference room, providing lunch, paying for travel. Therefore it would be wrong to give them a low star rating as technically they did invest in having us. However as previously said, for our age group training and development was almost useless as it was for a few years younger than us therefore this is the reason for 8 stars.

This I do feel Deloitte did well. They were pushing an apprenticeship scheme therefore it was important to find who would be a good recruit for their environment therefore I think they did this well. Plus they did give some insight as to what graduates were like too so they catered for a lot more of the group in what it would be like to have a full time role with them.

Once again as the firm were pushing an apprenticeship scheme and wanted to find the best recruits for their firm who would be suitable for their workplace and culture they did this well through interviewing staff and providing information on job roles and what is required of people who are employed there.

We only got a couple of hours of work shadowing, and from what I gathered from a lot of people they hadn't been given proper work to do therefore a lot of us felt a little let down. We wanted more work shadowing and would have been useful for both people interested in apprenticeships and degrees what career path would be best for them.

For any public transport we were reimbursed, but this takes 6-8 weeks despite when we were there the person who reimburses expenses said it only takes him 4 weeks. However still generous of them to do this for us all.

There was a networking evening whilst we were at the insight week. However having been with other work experiences before, this didn't quite live up to it. It was incredibly informal and no one got given a business card or contact details and there weren't a lot of people there either.

As addressed in the previous question, when comparing this networking event to others I have done it was incredibly informal and there didn't seem much point by the end of the evening as no one received business cards or contact information which is the whole point of networking. So it seemed a bit pointless. Plus there weren't a lot of people there.

When talking to other members of staff I found out what activities employees can get involved with outside of work - however this only seemed to mainly apply to the apprenticeship people who had a lot of socials etc whereas other employees didn't seem to have this.

I would recommend this insight to a friend on the basis of how good it looks on a CV, however I feel I didn't gain anything from the week as a whole due to it being targeted at around 4 years below the age group that attended and the amount of time spent on activities developing skills we should already have or not being challenging so I would warn them of this before recommending.