Analyst Review

Really good placement. Put in university accommodation (paid for by Centrica) with other summer placement students, so really have the chance to socialise. Had lots of training such as presentation training, excel training. Days are often broken up with volunteering activities, visits to other offices, or going out with an engineer for the day etc.

I did feel very valued by my colleagues. I was given responsibility to work independently early on. They always value the work I did, even if they had feedback it was always helpful and never negative. Centrica is very welcoming, people have always been very friendly and happy to help and interested how you are getting on.

I had a lot of support with having weekly catch ups with my manager to track my progress and check everything was going ok. Sitting together as a team meant it was very easy to ask for help though or check something whenever was necessary. Lots of support too, as you get given a buddy, who is someone from the grad scheme but also have catch ups with grads from the talent board.

In general, I often had a lot of tasks to be getting on with, especially being in a small, quite busy team. Especially having objectives to be getting on with, I was never too bored. Only went quite slowly when I was only doing one task and if I was struggling with it.

I was given quite a lot of responsibility, from completing my own tasks to helping out others with theirs. Can definitely take ownership of your own task and make it your own. Can even help decide your own objectives that you want achieve in the ten weeks of the placement.

Very useful that early on, there are excel sessions you can attend, signing up for different sessions depending on your ability. This was really useful to learn fast ways of doing things if you are not used to using excel. Also receive presentation training, to learn how to conduct yourself when speaking in front of others. Definitely something useful for the future.

Everybody in the office is very welcoming and friendly. Sometimes they can be quiet, as they aren't very full. There is a hot desking system so very flexible where you work in the office. Dress code is business but not too formal, and on Fridays there is dress down Friday so quite relaxed.

The overall placement was pretty well organised. There are lots of phone calls from your manager/graduate buddy before you start in case you have any questions about starting. There are weekly emails from the HR graduate team giving updates and information you may need which is useful. It could have been useful to know location/department a bit sooner but I understand that they did it asap.

Yes there is a fairly good social scene amongst fellow placement students as you all share accommodation in halls, so there are lots of opportunities to socialise, its just like being in university again. The grads organise some get togethers for your stream which is fun. Some people play football too and go to the gym together and socialise on weekends.

Most people are based in the Windsor or Staines offices, so there is not much nightlife in that area. However there are still places to go out and pubs nearby. But trains into London are regular and only take about 30mins or so, so easy to get to Clapham Junction etc.

Yes there are some activities you can get involved with. There is a volunteering portal where you can sign up to volunteer in a range of different activities, such as volunteering in shops or helping gardening. Some people play football after work too which is something that the grads get involved with too.