Marketing & Recruitment Intern Review

I have enjoyed my placement year with Hays. It has been both challenging and rewarding. I have become far more astute and resilient as a result of a years experience within such a competitive environment. The social aspect of my placement has also been very enjoyable. I have been lucky to go on a number of team incentives and activities which have been great fun!

I have felt both valued and welcomed throughout my placement. My manager and colleagues have been extremely helpful and always spent time with me to ensure I got the learning and development I needed in order to be an expert within my market. I have consistently received praise from my manager for my contributions to the teams performance.

Massively. Since my first week on placement I have had a meeting with my team on Monday morning's to review how it is going, what needs addressing and what we need to change / improve. I also have a weekly review with my manager every Friday - This is a one to one, and has been a great way for me to assess my own development throughout my placement.

I have been very busy. Since January I have technically been working three different roles, as I was given a marketing opportunity within Life Sciences and also an account management role with one of our exclusive clients. Juggling these two roles with recruiting has been challenging and at some times I have struggled to manage my time. But on the flipside it has massively increased my time management skills as I must structure my day in order to complete all of my tasks.

I have been given a huge amount of responsibility throughout my placement. I have been on a number of client meetings, and also attended the 3 day RQA conference with my manager. My manager has put a lot of trust into me this year. Going out and meeting clients and representing the company in such a way at a conference is a great deal of responsibility for a placement. This is something I feel you wouldn't necessarily be given the opportunity to do elsewhere.

I believe that the skills I have gained from Hays will be extremely beneficial to me. Time management is something I struggled with before coming on placement. I now feel so much more organised and efficient with my time, which will be extremely useful in my final year of university. Also, working in such a fast paced, competitive and often unpredictable environment has allowed me become adaptable, astute, determined and resilient, which are crucial skills for me to take forward into the workplace after university.

The atmosphere here in cheapside is brilliant. It is very lively and fast paced. I was lucky with the team I got put into as they have tried to make the atmosphere at work for us as fun as possible. We consistently have team games / activities and our Director runs lots of incentives which is a great way to keep us motivated at work, because the incentives are usually really fun!

The process before securing the placement was extremely efficient. I was hired in less than 3 weeks from my first initial conversation with Hays, which is really impressive considering I had an assessment center and an interview in this time frame. The initial training on the placement is also great. We have a 12 week training program which senior members of staff. This was extremely useful and organised. The only thing I would say is there isn't much structure after that period, as once we're fully up to speed it's more like you're full time employee rather than on placement. But I guess this can be seen as both a positive and a negative.

Hays is renowned for it's industry leading training and I have definitely witnessed why this year. The 12 week training program is exceptional. On top of this I have also received a lot of industry training related to my market. My manager has regularly done one to one training with me to keep me updated with changes in the market. I have also been lucky to have training sessions with the global MD for Life Sciences on recruitment best practice.

Although I'm still undecided whether I want to continue in recruitment after university, Hays still have a number of different pathways I could consider. I would definitely work for Hays again as the company culture is fantastic. The marketing role I have had the opportunity to do has been great for me, as it has allowed me to connect with the UK Marketing team and also HTS. This is also an area I could explore with Hays, if I don't decide to come back into recruitment after university.

The social scene between placement students has been great this year! I believe there has been about 46 of us on placement this year, so it has been very easy to socialize and make friends with like minded people. The 3 day sales training for interns was a highlight as we got to know placement students from different areas of the business. We went for drinks after which was great fun. Some of us have also organised on a number of occasions hiring a football pitch between us. This again has been great fun each week.

The area and cost of living has been rather expensive but that is widely known in London anyway so it is something I was prepared for before taking the placement. There has been a mixture of prices within the area, some relative cheap, and some very expensive. However Hays often have a tab for drinks on Friday 'bunk offs' which is great. There are also certain bars in the are who have happy hours etc. which is useful.

The nightlife has been great. There is plenty of bars in and around the Bank area, and it is also very easy to get over to Liverpool St / Shoreditch also which again has great night life. Madison's is brilliant for the summer months as the views of St Paul's Cathedral and the London skyline look amazing from the rooftop bar. The fine line is always buzzing on a Friday night, and it's hard not to have a great night in Core bar!

There have been a number of opportunities to do out of work activities with Hays. We are partnered with a number of charities so it is an option for us to do an event such as the London Marathon on behalf of Hays and then we can fundraise for that charity also. There has also been a number of opportunities to participate in team tough mudder / Spartan race events.