HR analyst Review

I liked the environment and I got along well with my colleagues so in that respect it was enjoyable but the work itself I found pointless and I didn't feel like it was worth while doing most of the time. While I think it is an enjoyable atmosphere I personally did not enjoy the work.

My manager was very supportive and gave me good feedback throughout the placement. My team I worked in were nice and I feel like they valued what I did to an extent but I was never given any tasks that were very valuable pieces of work and when I gave others feedback, my comments were usually ignored.

I received all the support I needed. My manager answered all my questions and sought to provide me with as many opportunities as she could. My colleagues were very helpful and made she I understood how to do everything and encouraged me to ask if I needed more support. I felt like there was sometimes too much support as I didn't feel like I had enough independence.

Not at all busy. I was presented with a list of jobs at the start which were intended to last 10 weeks but in reality only took 2 weeks. I then had little to do and I felt like asking for more work was creating more work for other people as it took longer to explain the task than it would take to complete it. All my tasks were very simple and never took long to complete.

Not enough. There was one project I helped with (but did not get trusted to do independently) that was important and would be used in the company on a wider scale. Other than that, nothing I was given to work on was of any importance and I struggled to see the purpose in it. I never had any solo tasks

I developed skills that were more speceifc to the HR role than to my psychology degree. While these were useful general skills like communication, admin and team work skills, they are skills I already possessed and I don't think they are specific to university.

The atmosphere was good, the staff are all friendly and welcoming. There are flexible office hours so there are different people in the office on different days and there is a coffee machine and canteen on site that are convenient for staff lunches and coffee breaks. There are pod rooms that can be booked for meetings and if you need to work in quieter space. I frequently used these as the office space was a bit noisy to concentrate

While there was a plan set out for my work, this was not sufficient as I finished it well before I finished the placement. The organisation of the internship scheme is well done as there are help guides and contact people to support interns if there are any general problems but my specific job was not well organised in the work they gave me.

There are very good online courses in many different areas, I personally found some excel skills ones useful. There are also training days that you can attend if they are running during the placement and tutorial videos that you can access online.

I personally would not want to work here. I can see that there is an appeal to working in a large company and they offer flexible agile working patterns but I found the work meaningless and unnecessarily bureaucratic and I would prefer to work somewhere that I can actually apply my psychology degree or where my opinion and suggestions are listened to

The social scene with other interns was good. We frequently went to lunch together and occasionally went out for dinner or drinks after work. The social scene in the office with other employees was less vibrant as other colleagues tended to work long hours or had a family to go home to. I went for coffee with a few of my team but was never offered further engagement.

As a student in Edinburgh, I was aware that it is an expensive city. Food, drinks, travel all adds up. The prices also increase considerably in august as the fringe festival is on. It is not impossible to live here for less but you have to look harder to find the cheaper deals.

The nightlife in Edinburgh is good. The office is in the centre of town and this means that you are near by everything and can walk easily to the many bars, pubs, restaurants and clubs in town. The downside is that all of these are very expensive and as such it makes the nightlife less accessible and so we did not go out a lot but when we did it was enjoyable

There were a few things that were organised by the interns. All the interns stay in shared accommodation and as such roommates typically arrange outings and parties together. Additionally there was a charity work campaign and as such many charity fundraisers were organised.