HR Assistant Review

My placement was an amazing experience, which enabled me to learn alot, not only about the department I worked within, but as a company altogether. Whilst studying, I never had the chance to work in a big company, on a full-time basis, and it has been an eye opener, but a great experience, and one I wish to carry on with me into the future!

My colleagues at Golfbreaks always valued my work ethic, and me as a person. I was trusted very quickly with my workload, which makes you forget you are a student doing a placment year, and feel more like a part of the team, and a full-timer! In terms of others within the company, everyone was always happy and friendly, and willing to get to know you, which can be daunting when you first start!

At Golfbreaks, I was always given support by my manager and team, if ever I had any issues, needed guidance with something, and generally anything else! This was great to have as a student, due to having minimal experience within a company environment and travel company, it was good to be able to ask questions without there being any judgement.

Generally, on a daily basis, my day was very busy, as I always had different jobs to work on, or if I found myself to be quiet, I would take it upon myself to catch up on admin, and other little odd jobs. I found that planning my days and organising a daily plan would help me to organise myself, and is something I learnt is a good way of self-management, and is something I will use when back at university.

At Golfbreaks, I was given a lot of responsibility, and undertook some very big tasks for the company, which would make a big impact on the company if done right or wrong. It was great to have been trusted with such responsibility, and showed that the team trusted me to do the job, and do it well, and they knew that I was capable of doing it. As a student, you tend to take the safe route, but it is good to be pushed to your limits, as it can show you what else you are capable of, and I beleived I learnt some great life lessons here, involving this.

I beleive the skills learnt within the job, and personal skills I have learnt about myself will enable me to manage my studies and my time a lot better, as well as now having an understanding of how the modules I learn and have learnt at university, are applied to a real life business. The skills within my specific area that I have learnt will also help me in future modules that I have chosen for my final year of university, as I have decided to go down this career parth, and as well as helping me in my future careerr.

Generally, Golfbreaks.com, was always a fun place to be, and has a vibrant, young, and fun atmosphere, always making monday a good place to be! They pride themselves on being an SME, menaing the office is not overcrowded with people, or there being a sea of 1000 faces, but this makes for the atmosphere of the office to be a nice, family atmosphere.

The work placement was very organised, and has been taking place for more than 10 years, therefore the overall running of the placement was structured, and well run. There are 5 different areas Golfbreaks runs placements within, with one just recently introduced this year, but the other 4 have been planned and structured, and have ran for many years.

Every month, myself and my manager would be to find out how I was getting on within my role, and if there was anything I particulary eanted an insight into, within my department. This was a great opportunity to develop my knowledge in other areas of the department, and find out about other areas I didn't know anything about, or even have a clue they existed. As well as my montly 1-1's, appraisals also took place, for self development and for my manager to find out how I was feeling within my job, and if there was anything else I wanted to learn, whilst having the oportunity to do so within my placement year.

Future prospects within the company are a positive one. Golfbreaks are always looking to get ex-placement students back, as they beleive they make up a crucial part of the business, which is evident, and have led onto some great job roles within the company who started as placement students, such as Head of Sales, HR Director, HR Manager, and Head of UK Sales (to name a few.)

Our placement year were extremely social, with nearly every Thursday spent in the pubs and bars around Windsor, and weekend socials, such as Ascot. Due to the large amount of placement students taken on each year (22 students) this makes for a great social community, like a university away from uni. Compared to some of my colleagues at my university, the social life Golfbreaks offers compared to them was second to none.

Unfortunately, Windsor can be quite an expensive area to live in, due to its proximity to London, and how nice of a place it is to live. Windsor is full of things to do, and is the Queen's residence, and is next door neighbour to Eton School, therefore when added up, the price you pay for rent is fair for what you get on your doorstep.

The nightlife in Windsor was pretty good, with Atik being the main club, and under the arches, which is full of bars and smaller clubs. The nightlife offered here was even beter that my own uni town (minus the student union), so it was a great change to live here for the year and experience this.

Yes, there was always opportunities to get involved in outside of work whether this be sport or social activities! There was always a few sports clubs going on, gym sessions, or summer evenings spend in the pub garden, meaning you were never bored, and there was always something going on you could get involved in.