BMW Media Events Assistant Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my year student placement at BMW. I learnt so much more than I thought I would in a student placement and was given responsibilities which helped me develop as a person and in my role. I got on very well with my team and colleagues which made the role a delightful experience.

I felt hugely valued by my work colleagues - they praised all the work I successfully completed, asked how the events went that I organised, took an interest in my work and also helped me whenever I was stuck or wanted advice. By the end of the placement I saw them as friends as well as colleagues.

My colleagues and management were always happy to give me support, advice and guidance with my role whether this was through email, a short meeting, chat in the office or over the phone. The team are very good at communicating. The handover process at the beginning of the placement by the previous student was always very helpful in giving guidance for the role.

There was always plenty of work to be getting on with and there was a good balance of busy times and quieter times. The quieter times meant there was time to do administrative activities and the team were always happy to take on some of the work load if I was struggling. This meant I learnt a lot about time management and prioritizing.

The events manager and executive left so this meant I was the only person in the events team, which allowed me to take on more responsibility than a normal student would have done. I never expected that I would fully run an event myself and I am hugely proud and thankful that I was given this chance.

I have learnt so many skills, which I believe will help me in my final year of University as well as any future jobs. Time management and prioritizing will both help me in managing the many modules I will be studying in final year. I have had good experience in a professional environment which will help me in future roles.

The atmosphere in our office was very friendly, hard-working and comfortable. The additional work spaces, such as the sofa areas, made meetings more interesting and also helped people relax in the work environment. Everyone in the office is very friendly and happy to help out if you ever need an answer or any help.

The student placement was very well organised - my laptop was all set up when I arrived, however I did need to download and set up a lot of systems. This might have been helpful to have a list of systems I would need access to and the ways to sort this out. My pass was ordered when I arrived (as I needed a photo ID) and didn't take too long to arrive. My team were very helpful in getting things like this sorted prior to my arrival.

I didn't get any formal training as such, which would have been really useful to learn more about different aspects on the company or to learn about areas such as PR and stress management etc. However there were a lot of workshops, online programmes that were optional to extend our learning.

If the right job was available or offered to me then I would definitely accept, however I would not be upset if I didn't get back into the company. I have had an amazing year with great experience so would be happy to leave the company on a high. There are not many future employment prospects as the scheme the company do offer does not guarantee you a job.

As many of the students lived with their parents/at home, we were all scattered all over the area so meeting up as a group proved tricky. We managed it a couple of times, even if we just went for one drink after an event. I lived with 5 other students so we managed to do a lot more together as a smaller group.

My rent was quite expensive, however we lived in a nice house rather than a cheap student house. Socializing meant traveling to somewhere, so that added to the cost a fair amount, whether it was a taxi into Reading or the train into London. We chose to live in Reading, hoping it would be a bit cheaper given the students in the area.

I never went out in the area I worked. We tended to go out in Reading or London which ended up costing a fair amount to travel etc. The town we worked in was fairly remote and I don't believe any of the students went out in the local bars/clubs. The Christmas party was very good and it meant the whole workplace was able to have a good night together, however it was very far from where we all lived.

The company never helped in any extra activities outside of work, however my house all joined the gym and managed to have a couple of days out in London together. This was nice, however it meant weekends were not that exciting and we tended to go home to our parents/to University to see our friends. I believe if we wanted to we could have researched the area more to find extra activities.