Analyst Review

I really enjoyed my day to day role. I was able to take on real responsibilities from the onset, leading my own projects from inception to completion, and work with a wide variety of seniority of management and staff.

I was definitely valued by my colleagues. I became an expert in several areas within the department I was working in, and people would regularly come to me asking for advice and information. The acknowledgement from others when being able to help with their work was also consistent and rewarding.

I was given an opportunity to discuss work, personal development or anything outside of work with my line manager between once a week and once a fortnight. There were also a wide variety of people I could go to for different advice and mentoring, if I needed it.

Initially it wasn't busy, mainly due to the need for me to get up to speed with a lot of different areas and projects that were happening. After a few weeks, it varied with the requirements of projects I was working with. Some days I would have to stay extra hours to ensure I could finish projects in time, but it was nothing unmanageable.

I was given a high level of responsibility. Once I had proven I was capable of delivering to a good standard, I was left to run and manage my own projects without much interference from other members of staff. I could make my own decisions with the way I wanted projects to go, given I could provide enough evidence to support my judgement. The projects I were running had real impact into the daily running of the business.

In terms of degree, it helped with my confidence in presenting and working with a variety of different people. In terms of career, I have learnt so many new technical skills that are difficult to master without being able to use them in a real life scenario, as well as soft skills to help me work in a wide variety of sectors outside of the scope of my placement.

I worked in a call center environment, and so there was always a lot going on. Although my team wasn't part of the call center, we were always able to get involved with the different activities and fun events happening around the office.

There was definitely some poor organisation in the administrative side of the placement. There was a big disconnect between the placement team and the team I was working in, with information not being passed to my manager and team on a regular basis and us instead having to find out things through other teams. Whilst not really having an impact on the day to day role, its very clear there's some big growth areas here with the set up, as we were often left questioning what the central talent team actually did, as there was very little communication or assistance from them at all.

Within my team, there was plenty of training and development opportunities. I was given time to develop new skills, sit with different areas to learn about their role, and take online training courses in both work and personal development areas. We had several sessions within the intern community in order to help develop our skills. These were a bit generic and limited in their development, so a few of us set up our own ones with each other to learn about each others roles and new skills, and our managers were fully supportive of us taking time to do this.

Whilst there is a graduate fast track for interns, a large group of us didn't qualify for a full fast track. In my case, the scheme sponsor had changed, and so whilst the person doing my role this year will be able to get an early offer, I'm currently going through the normal application process. However, outside of the graduate scheme, there are definitely great opportunities to return. Being able to learn a wide variety of new skills, take on large scale projects by yourself and work with a variety of stakeholders doesn't got unnoticed, Being able to build up a network of people within the business and gaining transferable skills definitely makes it easier to return in a full time role.

There is definitely a big focus on building up an intern and grad community, with many events happening to build that bond. There's also a lot of fun events that take place throughout the year for normal employees that you can get involved in, and so the company does promote social aspects as well as work.

Birmingham isn't the most expensive area to live in. You can pay what you want essentially; there's plenty of Spoons and champagne bars depending on what you want.

Birmingham has a wide variety of places you can go to depending on what you like. It helps to know the area as there's some real gems outside of the typical Broad Street clubs.

There's always a lot going on outside of work to get involved with. The office I worked in was full of quite young people, and so there was a big mix of events taking place all of the time.