Power Academy Student Review

The work I was given during my placement was legitimate, and all colleagues in the department I was working in were incredibly friendly and supportive. This helped maintain interest as it was clear that the work I was being given was definitely useful to the company. Overall, this made National Grid a great place to have a placement.

The colleagues working in the department around me were fantastic. Everybody was very supportive and willing to go out of their way to help out if there were any issues. I was included as one of the team, and attended the weekly team meetings. It felt as though I had been there for years.

The support I was given was very good. I was not “babied” because I was there for such a short time and with little experience, but I was not entirely left to my own devices. Overall, I feel that there was a very good balance struck by my supervisor. My official line manager was much less involved, so when my supervisor was on holiday there was much less support, but was still manageable.

Because the work given was genuine company work, it was quite involved and very interesting. There was never any period where I felt over or underworked. I didn’t feel stressed but there was enough work to keep me interested. There was always the sense that if everything got too much then I could say something to management to lessen the workload due to the friendly atmosphere in the department

The work I was undertaking was genuine company work so it felt like we were really trusted rather than being given “busywork”. I was trusted to manage my own schedule and workload during the course of my placement which helped give a true representation of what it would be like to work at the company.

The skills I have developed over the course of this placement will definitely be useful when I return to university. I have gained experience of time and workload management as well as some technical knowledge that will help with my studies too. I also had opportunities to develop presentation skills and gain experience of the work environment.

The general atmosphere in the office was great. Everyone is incredibly friendly and it feels as though you could talk to anybody! The office environment is very clean and modern with great facilities such as a gym, coffee shops and a great canteen amongst other things which definitely helps the overall experience.

The placement was well set up. When I arrived there was a laptop waiting on me with all the software I would need for my placement already installed. All the documentation that was required to be filled out was completed and there were no issues over the whole of the placement.

The employment prospects after the placement were very good. The placement scheme I was involved with within National Grid meant that providing my performance was decent enough, I would receive an official offer to join the Graduate Scheme. There was a relatively unofficial interview at the end of the placement but the job was almost guaranteed by that point. There were no applications of assessment centres to get accepted.

The social scene between the placement students could not have been better. We would meet up several times a week and have barbecues, go out for meals, drinks and nights out, play football or have picnics in the local park. This helped make the placement incredibly enjoyable. There were roughly 20 students, so there were enough people to mean that we could meet regularly, but not so many that there wasn’t a great atmosphere.

The nightlife in Leamington Spa was very good due to the number of students that live there during term time. This meant there were a few clubs and plenty of bars. The clubs Altoria and Smack were our choice of night out and we ended up there on quite a few nights.