Early Trading Assistant Review

It took a while to get the hang of it and I didn't enjoy it for the first 6 months, but once I got the hang of it and could understand I was making money then and see the results of my work, then I loved it.

I was made really welcome by my team and really felt vaid and enjoyed working with my collegues and my manager. However I felt that some senior management didn't value the placement scheme very much and were at times difficult to get along with.

They gave a lot of support at the beginning and this was really useful. They were also always on hand throughout the year to help out with queries and help with system issues etc - all I had to do was ask accross my desk and someone was happy to help. I did feel that this innitial enthusiasm drained away a bit over the year and less development and support was offered as the year went on.

We had busy and quiet periods - January time we were very busy and whilst this was hard work, it was really enjoyable. The work load was pushing at times but I would rather be busy than bored.

We had huge amounts of responsibility and this was really amazing for a placement scheme. We traded our own resorts and made millions of pounds of price changes every week and could decide our own pricing sratogies within reason and also make our own judgement calls with queries from the call centres. I doubt there is another placement out there wher they give you this level of trust and responsibility.

A hell of a lot - I learnt more in my first 2 weeks there than I had done in 2 years of uni lectures and I have pricked up and developed many skills and experiences that will benefit me throughout life. The skills may not be so iseful in my degree but for my future business life they were hugeley beneficial.

Work hard play hard. Most employees were fairly young and there was a good social life with activities ofter organised by the company or our teams. It was a really good office to work in and it was a sociable atmosphere

It wasn't great but this was probibly because it was a small and relatively new scheme. We were mainly treated like normal employees and did a normal jo so on a week to week basis it didn't feel like we were placements. We were promised things like resort trips when we applied that never materialised and this was also the case with several other things. I think they are looking to improve this for next year by doing more training, placement activities etc

We had a really good 3 week induction period and then had several follow up days after this like 'be a great performer' etc We had a lot of training on the systems but I feel different people had different views on how much we should have - a senior manager in my team was reluctant to let us go on courses unless it would directly benefit our day to day performance, so I was unable to go on a presentation course because I don't do presentations in my job role, but from a placement/ uni view this would have been interesting and useful. We were able to see other areas of the business and that was interesting.

Whilst I think most people could come back and continue with the job they were doing (and this has happened in the case of a lot of previous placements), there is no link with the grad - scheme and this is what most people would like to do, whereas in a lot of other businesses the two are closely linked.

There was a decent social scene - we all ate lunch togeather and also went for nights out every couple of weeks. We also lived togeather in 2 houses so this was good because otherwise moving to Luton would have been a bit lonely.

So cheap - I paid £200 + bills for my room in the shared house in luton (3 sharing)and we were near ASDA so that was realy handy. Lots of sports centres in Luton and Gym membership being £20/ month.

Luton has many cheap nights out with Legends having £10 all you can drink on a Tues and Liquid having £1.25 drinks on a Thurs with free entry! There are places like St Albans, Hitchin and London nearby but they are more expensive and the clubs are not as good. 2 Whetherspoons pubs and also a scream pub in the centre so a lot of variety and cheap drinks.

There were a few activites ivolving people from work - I played badminton on Mondays with some other epople from Commercial and this was really good fun and they also had several 5 aside teams. I joined several local sports clubs and also volounteered at a local school for 3 hours, one evening a week coaching sport. The company organiused several activities like sports days, bbq's and christmas party's and these were amazing.