Customer Operations Summer Placement Review

I enjoyed how much responsibilitiy was given to me! My manager was very good at assigning me new tasks but also giving me the freedom to think of my own ideas. Sometimes my manager was very busy and so I could be at a loss of things to do, however the Graduate team are always getting us involved in social media projects and charity projects so there's always something I can get working on.

The people in my office were extremely friendly and they really want to help the Summer Placement students. I felt valued in my main project because during meetings mymanager would hand over to me to update the team oin what I've been working on and what the current state of the project is. I felt like I could ask anyone for help if I needed it.

My manager was great at supprting my development. He would meet 121 with me regularly to talk about my progress, what I've been working on and what I should do next in order to meet my personal and work related targets

my busy levels peaked around midway through the placement. There was a slow start mainly because there was a lot of admin and technical things to get ot the way and because I was new to the team, I hadn't been included in any plans for future projects or tasks. After a week my main project had been assigned to me and I could see clearly what I would be working on and my manager helped me throughout.

I was given a lot of responsibility. although it didn't feel like that because the project I was working on was in the very first stages. Ultimately my work and ideas will be shown and used by millions of customers and it's great to know that customers will benefit from this! I also took on more responsibility by getting involved in the Centrica social media which was really fun to fit in around this project.

I graduated during my summer placement so I didn't have any studies beyond but I know that my leadership, project management and communiction skills have developed significantly as well as my confidence! I know these skills will be essential for any future jobs.

As a call centre, there was a more exciting feel to the office because it wasn't completely quiet the whole time. There was always fun decorations around and they would play the olympics and wimbledon on the big screens throughout the office during the afternoon. We were free to manage our own time and the desk I was working on were always friendly and chatty.

It was well organised however since I was based very far away from head quarters I felt like I had been overlooked when it came to big group activities. For example there was a training session booked at 9am and no accomodation was offered to us the night before meaning we either had to miss it or get up extemely early for a 6am flight. Since I didn't want to miss out on the training I took the early flight but it meant I was exhausted for the rest of the day. Travel expenses were all paid for which helps a lot but the number of taxis I was taking did add up and it was sometimes difficult to lose that cash in the first place before claiming it back a month later. Other than that the graduate team did a good job in checking up on us and sorting any issues I had as best they can.

They invested a lot. They wanted us to develop our skills as much as we could and my manager made sure he was doing everything that he could to ensure that I could develop well. The graduate team organised 3 training sessions for us: presentation skills, excel and blogging. These were all usefult to my internship and beyond.

Very appealing. There is a high conversion rate from the summer placement scheme to the graduate scheme. All the graduates say that the scheme is very enjoyable. It's great that they get given real responsibility and they really do see how they've developed. The only thing that concerns me is that I feel graduates have a completely different outlook on the company compared to direct hires.

There was a much larger social scene at the headquarters. For example there was a graduate bbq party which all the Windsor and Staines based interns were invited to however since I was a nroth based student I wasn't invited. My team in the office were super friendly though and I didn't feel like I missed out on much.

Reasonable. The only thing that was annoying was that I had to pay for laundry in my accomodation. But it was really nice new student accomodation which more than made up for it! Food was fairly standard. Transport was fairly expensive though. The office canteen served very cheap dinners and lunches and there was also an M&S and Costa across the road if you wanted something different.

I don't really engage in the nightlife. After a long day at work it was nice to spend the evening in and watch some TV. But I was living in a good part of town with a lot of bars and pubs to eat and drink. There was also a brewery nearby which served beers that sevred locally brewed beers and ciders.

We were encouraged to raise money for charity during our placement so I organised a charity quiz with the other summer placement student that was based in my office. They also got us involved in creating content for the centrica social media. This could be instagram, facebook, linkedin or twitter. On one of the group days we had down in Staines they organised a small dodgeball tournament.