Finance Assistant Review

I have really enjoyed the placement scheme at Golfbreaks.com, the year has had it all. A great experience where I have been exposed to all aspects of the finance department (working as a Finance Assistant) which has not only increased my knowledge but has improved my soft skills as well.

All of the colleagues in my department have shown me a great deal of respect (more than I was expecting!). As well as this all colleagues across the business have made me feel valued in and out of the office during work hours and during social events which are a big part of life at Golfbreaks.

My manager was brilliant! In the beginning he was always on hand if I had any questions whilst I was still learning and adapting to the role but as I grew into the role the responsibility given to me increased at a perfect rate with my manager and his manager on hand to assist me if required.

As with any role the workload fluctuated from some days where it seemed I was never going to get through the pile of work to days where I was almost twiddling my thumbs. However, whenever it got to the point where I found myself with nothing to do there was always something else I could help one of my colleagues/managers with.

As already mentioned in a previous comment I feel the responsibility I was given in the role was perfectly increased as I became more confident in the role. I have been completing tasks that include me directly reporting into the financial controller and have also been part of a testing team for our new accounting software.

The skills I have developed through the placement scheme at Golfbreaks have been more valuable than any lecture could be. The experience of working in an office and working on tasks that relate to the company have provided me with both soft skills and experience that I can take into future roles. The training received throughout the year was also brilliant as it brought context to the tasks that I was doing.

The atmosphere in the office was fantastic the majority of the time, there are lot of younger people working within the company making it a vibrant atmosphere for students and the whole company being based in one office means that all departments are closely linked and the sales teams get a round of applause from the whole office when they meet their daily targets.

Golfbreaks take on over 20 placement students every year and that has definitely shown in the overall programme. The whole company is designed to work with placement students with a two week handover between outgoing and incoming students in order for everything to be handed over. Placements also get the chance to take place in competitions such as Directors Den which is a great opportunity to pitch an idea that could improve the company to the directors of the company.

The company invested a great deal of time for my development, in finance we had a training session once a month which focused on things we had learnt in our first two years at uni and applied it to the business. This may not sound like much but it has clarified all the theory I had learnt by giving it meaning in relation to the company.

Being able to come back to a finance role will mainly depend on the availability of a finance graduate role being available in the company in 12 months time. however I believe that across the business there are lots of opportunities for students to return as full time graduates in the business.

As there were a lot of placements the social scene was always buzzing, the rest of the company also joined in with some of these events which shows a really good integration of the students in the company.

The office is based in Windsor and don't think that it is cheap to live and drink in a Royal Borough. Having said that you get plenty of notice of the job so if you search from the moment you get the offer you can find a place for a reasonable price then your salary will be more than enough to live comfortably.

the nightlife was good as there are a lot of pubs around the office and plenty of bars for later on. As with everything though it was rather expensive and so big nights out were limited.

There are so many opportunities for events outside of work. Most nights there will be a group of people from the office playing 5 a side football or playing golf. There are other competitions open to people of all abilities right through the company.