Market Analyst Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement year at BASF, it was a great experience to work within the project management team here. The twelve months I spent here gave me a great insight into how a market analyst works within a large organisation. I feel I have learnt lots, both about myself and about BASF. This is a placement I would definitely recommend to others.

One of the most pleasing aspects of working within the project management team was that I was working alongside fellow students, as well as colleagues with numerous qualifications within their industry of work and many years of experience. I felt highly valued by my colleagues right across the business and felt the work I was doing was helping others to be able to do their jobs better. The close contact I had with many colleagues across different departments, including senior management, gave me the feeling I was producing valuable work that was of a high level of importance.

Constant support was given through my manager in the project management team. One-to-one meetings with my manager would take place monthly, this would allow for us to evaluate what was going well and what could be changed in order to get the best out of my placement year. As my manager had many years of experience, it was also good to listen to some of their experiences and try to learn as much as possible.

Management made sure that workloads were always at a good level. The majority of my time was spent working on short and long term project work, however, monthly and quarterly reporting also kept me busy at the start of each month/quarter. I would say that there was definitely a good level of work at all times, to keep me busy, without putting unreasonable levels of work on myself.

The level of responsibility given to me was surprising. As a placement student, my expectations were exceeded. As mentioned earlier, the work that I was asked to produce was being used throughout the business at all levels, including senior management. I was left solely to complete projects myself, however, I could also ask for any help I needed from my manager.

I believe the researched skills I have gained are already helping towards my degree, in terms of how I will research sources for my dissertation. Throughout my placement my manager would constantly ask which skills I felt I would like to develop. For me, one of the big ones was my presentation skills. Therefore, my manager would try to get me as many opportunities as possible to improve these skills. I felt that my manager definitely went out of his way to ensure that I was constantly developing new skills, whilst also touching up on those I already had.

The atmosphere in the office was good. All of my colleagues were friendly and approachable. Working within the project management team, as mentioned earlier, I was amongst other students. This gave a more relaxed feel to our team and helped in terms of settling into the business.

The placement was very well organised, with a handover period from previous placement students in place.

As mentioned, I received constant support from my manager in terms of developing my skills. I felt I was given numerous opportunities to gain new experiences. I also believe that my manager went out of his way in order to allow me to learn as much as possible about the company, this included some very enjoyable trips out of the office to other UK BASF manufacturing sites.

Although the company does not have a graduate scheme as such, in the UK, I believe should the opportunity come up in the future to return to BASF, it would definitely be somewhere that I would be very happy to work.

Good social scene with organised nights out etc.

Located just outside of Manchester. Reasonably priced cost of living.

Great nightlife especially being so close to Manchester.

Yes many opportunities, including organised weekly social clubs, I.e. 5-a-side football.