Assistant Governance Manager in Products and Propositions Review

Overall my placement was really enjoyable. My role for the 10 weeks was in a really exciting and fast paced area of the business, and I had exposure to a lot of interesting projects. It was also great to live with 40 other summer placement students in student halls and go out after work and at the weekend together.

Overall I felt very valued. Day to day I was completing tasks and things that my team would otherwise be doing. My team were also interested to know my opinion of things and saw my fresh eyes as an advantage to them. Everyone was really welcoming and friendly and included me in everything they could.

My manager was excellent, we had weekly catch ups in person and whilst she was not in the office all the time she always kept in contact and was there if i needed any help or any questions answering. She was easy to go to with problems, and open to giving me feedback which was always constructive. There were also other people i knew i could go to to help me if my manager couldn't or was busy.

Fairly busy. Day to day I always had something to do, and if i didn't i always said and my team had small jobs going that needed to be done. The nature of one of my projects also meant i could take my time and wasn't under too much pressure to get it done really quickly. Therefore i had a lot of control in how busy i could make myself.

I was completing tasks that my team would usually do and that were important to my team. I felt my team trusted that i had completed it to their standards, especially as at the start i made sure i spent time dedicated to learning and shadowing my team so i knew what i was doing. It also meant they knew that I had spent time doing this which i believe gave them more confidence in my abilities

The things I will take away from my placement will definitely help in my a role on the graduate scheme specifically at centrica. My commercial knowledge around the company's strategy etc and future projects is much stronger. Also I have established a network here that will also help in the future. Some other key skills i will take away more generally- stakeholder management, excel skills and presentation skills.

The staines office wasn't a flashy central london office, but was still a good office to be in. There was a good (although expensive) cafe, a gym and always desk space. You could always ask to go to a different office and work there for the day if you wanted a change of scenery too.

At the start of the placement you get a guide that tells you all the key dates and you know the date of your calibration a good 4 weeks in advance. Some smaller things and deadlines, weren't always clearly communicated or clarified, and required additional emails to check.

All the marketing summer placements had a vast array of different training opportunities- e.g brand, commercial awareness and personal development. They were run by experienced senior employees and it was great to have access to these people and all these were highly beneficial to our development. We were always allowed to arrange our own learning opportunities too and the company actively invited us to do this!

My 10 weeks gave me strong exposure to the opportunities available for graduates and beyond including the different roles on offer. The company, in terms of the marketing side of the business, have lots of exciting innovative projects to get involved in that i didnt expect when i started my placement.

Yes very good. Everyone was really friendly and got on really well. We did things at the weekends and after work such as clubbing and shopping etc. My team were geographically spread so doing things with colleagues was harder but i dont feel i missed out. The grad were also very sociable.

Egham/staines was quite expensive in terms of clubbing and going for drinks, but food costs were average as we just went to a near by tesco. Transport costs were also kept to a minimum given that the office was 10 mins down the road, and so through car pooling this wasn't too expensive.

Pretty expensive. Egham had no clubs so we always had to go to other towns like windsor or kingston which meant an expensive taxi usually, but we made the most of it and were all in the same boat. Some of the local pubs in egham were nice and appealing especially after payday

One activity was the charity challenge and for this we completed a tough mudder in leeds. It was every physically challenging but overall an enjoyable day. It was a great way to meet and bond with people not in your stream or your office