Business Analyst Review

I found this year in industry engaging, allowing me to work on a range on different tasks. This helped me to put in to practice a number of skills that I have leaned on my University course as well as a number of skills that I have not been taught whilst and University.

All the colleagues that I have worked with during this placement year have been very helpful and have all treated me like I have been working here for years. I have never felt under valued by anyone. Since my first day working here everyone in my office have made me feel welcome.

The support and guidance that I have received from my managers / supervisors have been a nice balance. They have left me to get on with work tasks allowing me to manager my own time. However when I have needed to go to them for help if there is something that I have struggled with they have always been very helpful and pointing me in the right direction if it is something that they have been unable to help with.

During the start of the placement the first couple of weeks the work load was very small. But one I had began to understand the daily processes and technological infrastructure the work slowly started to pick up. Half way through my placement my office went through a restructure this helped with work load allowing me to better define my teams work. This meant that I had more work but did not really feel busier as it was better organised.

I felt I was given quite a nice balance of responsibility. In smaller projects that I had a deeper understanding of I was given a relatively large amount of responsibility. But in the larger projects that had a wider impact on the business and people, I had a smaller more limited amount of responsibility, Due to the impact that this could of have on production.

I think that some of the technical skills that I have acquired during this year will help me with my final year at university. But mostly I thinks its the soft skills that I have acquired that will aid me at University and more so in my career afterwards. Its provided me with vital skills in how to mange my time and workload in a environment when not completing work will affect other team member and a projects progress rather than just my own.

The general atmosphere is quite relaxed. I have never felt overly stressed at any point during my placement year, even when I have had a large workload. Everyone gets on well and are easy to talk to, about work and during breaks / lunch. People always get up and talk to each other if they can rather than sending emails or instant messages and at the same time its quite quiet and a nice environment to work in.

During the first half of my placement the office was reasonably well organised but sometimes I felt that projects were being passed about and put on the back burner. However around six months in my office went through a slight restructure and since then I have found the organisation to be a lot more defined. Projects are picked up by the relevant team before the team even know about then allowing us to see exactly what work will be coming are way in the future.

There has been a reasonable amount of opportunity to develop both technical skills as well as soft skills. This was done both informally and formally. I have competed a number of compulsory and non-compulsory online exams during my time here. But I feel I have learnt most from just working the office environment day to day and interacting with colleagues all over the world.

As a company I would be happy to work for caterpillar in the future. If a position that suits my skills were to arise. I would certainly think about applying for it, and from my experience I would recommend caterpillar as a great company to work for. It also seems like there are good prospects for self progression and possible promotion with caterpillar which is nice to see.

The office that I was working in put on a few social events throughout the year, on quite a regular basis. There was also a number of office sports team, some that ran throughout the year and others that just ran in the summer. Including badminton, cricket and football. There is also a young professionals club that also put on events for the younger members of caterpillar.