Commercial Analyst Review

It was a great experience; the work really developed skills that would be transferable and applicable to my final university year and on-wards. However, my team, CC's culture and the other placements really made this year, and I will be sad to leave. The job was enjoyable and varied, and constantly evolving with new tasks being handed or created all the time so I never did the same thing everyday, and this varied routine was exactly what i wanted.

My team and higher management made it extremely clear i was there to do a real job, not a throwaway role, that really makes a difference. I felt extremely valued and important to the day to day running of my team. My role became similar to those of the permanent members of my team, and lot of people in the business did not realise i was a placement student and viewed me as a permanent employee, which was positive and surprising.

Management are very helpful and what you to have the best experience with an open culture.

At points I was almost too busy with the amount of responsibility I had been given, but on the whole it was at a perfect level of being busy enough to not be bored but with enough time for personal development and university reports. This balance was perfectly managed, and during periods of high stress and work load management were understanding and supportive.

At points I was almost too busy with the amount of responsibility and different projects i received, but this only pushed me forward.

So much - the skills are all extremely transferable and usable. I made clear developments in my use of Microsoft Office - this includes word and power point for making all reports business compliant with the corporate branding, ensuring consistency in formatting and being able to target and specialise presentations to each audience. Also, excel usage has meant that I was able to expand on knowledge gained in my course at university.

The particular office i was in was on the quiet side; a large amount of teams were moved elsewhere and thus our side of the office was rather quiet at times. However this did mean there was more opportunity for close discussion and the teams that were left were very funny. I liked the atmosphere but it could have been better with more people.

On the whole the placement was well organised; the induction week spent as a placement cohort meant that we all received the same basic training to ensure we all began at an equal level and became friends very quickly, From there, my placement lacked slightly a formal induction procedure, and more social events could have been organised, but on the whole very well done.

The company invested in me as a placement student heavily; they sent me on three courses over the year, at a monetary cost to the company for both expenses and the courses themselves. I feel this is one of the main reasons i respect the company so much as it puts a lot into us as placements and this makes me more inclined to return in the future. They care a lot about their employees.

Future employment prospects are very appealing to myself within Computacenter. The company have numerous grad and associate schemes available this year which has been increasing massively each year. Due to it continuing to get better and better I am hopeful that there will be a role i believe will fit me perfectly by the time i get to re-apply, however even now i can see roles that i would love to apply for. This also includes non-scheme roles, such as going straight into jobs within the business, as I have seen the opportunity for internal recruitment and outright jobs.

The social scene could have been improved slightly with more internally created events, as it was hard to do so ourselves with students living at varying distances away from the base office. In my team i was lucky due to being closely aligned with another placement and we were able to fulfill the social aspect during our day working together. Also, we as a placement cohort would have lunch together on most days which kept us socially involved, however this could have been improved slightly overall.

I was able to live at home during my placement year so my living costs were only a small rental payment per month. This also meant that I was used to having to pay the southern prices! If someone was coming from the north, it might be a little more expensive to live and socialise, however I do not think that the area around head office is overly expensive. It is definitely do-able on the wage we received.

The nightlife near head office is not amazing - there is one club near, and a few pubs, however it is not a bustling nightlife. There are areas reasonably close which have a higher amount of clubs and bars, however with such a short train ride into London it is easy to go there for a night out and be able to get home easily afterward without having the high housing prices of actually living in the city.

There were a lot of opportunities to get involved in different sorts of activities; there is a charity committee at Computacenter which means if you wanted to get involved in charity you can, with events such as charity football matches and bake sales. Also due to the area being a university town, there are a lot of clubs and sports teams you can get involved in if you wanted to.