Project and Customer Coordinator Review

I worked as a Project Management Placement and I really enjoyed the whole experience. Everyday was quite different, I thoroughly enjoyed most of the tasks I did throughout the year. I worked in the Quality Team which was split into two locations: Stockton and Peterborough, but every month the whole team would get together for a team meeting and team dinner and that was also quite nice. My job had a huge variety of tasks, some of which were amazing and others which were very helpful to learn (such as writing minutes)

Since day 1 I felt extremely valued by my team, I was given a lot of responsibility and even if I made mistakes, they were still there to support me and help me through it, I definitely enjoyed being part of the team and I still keep in contact with them.

My manager and my team could not have been much better. They helped me through many hurdles, my manager was very attentive and always made sure my workload was appropriate, I had a lot of guidance and support throughout my journey there, However in many tasks, I was free to tackle in whichever way I thought it was best. I really appreciated that, because I could do most tasks with my own judgement however, if I needed any help or guidance I know that they would be there to help.

Working in the Quality Team in the Project Management area meant that the amount of tasks really fluctuated. So, it really depends on what you are working on. Some days I would have maybe one meeting and a couple of admin tasks to do, other days I had to balance many meetings and deadlines. However this is what made working at Cummins so exciting, it was by no means boring, Every day was different, everyday I was faced with different challenges and opportunities. Especially because during the less busy periods you can get involved with different projects.

I was given a lot of responsibility. After my training period I was responsible for facilitating many different meetings including the Strategic Account Management Meetings for each of our customer sites. The facilitation included drawing out data and analysis, preparing the presentation, organizing the meetings to suit the customers and facilitating the meeting on the day as well as dealing with the minutes. The customers who attended the meetings were Site Managers across Europe, Africa and the Middle East. This however was just one side of it. I also ran my own projects, one of which was related to our work to help the local community which was very successful. One of the other projects I ran was a set of Events to improve our customer service and our image with our customers. Based on research that was previously done, I had the autonomy to choose the marketing material needed and was responsible for ordering resources and managing the whole event.

I have learnt so many transferable skills whilst on my placement! Even with daily tasks such as writing minutes, it made me so much better at writing notes for university. Having this placement also taught me the huge differences between life at university and full-time work and how to balance my time better. All the training I received will definitely help with any future jobs - I was trained in many problem solving techniques, learned about 6-Sigma, better resources to manage customer and supplier relationships not to mention how to work in a global company. All the skills I developed and training are too many to list, but I definitely enjoyed my journey.

The general atmosphere was always enjoyable. My desk was pretty central and it was between two Project Managers. My team was always very supportive and very fun to be around. Whenever anyone had a problem we could just turn around and discuss things, they were always there to give me advice or just to have a chat during lunch. My team was very helpful with everything which made the whole environment even better. I got on very well with others and I honestly enjoyed going to work everyday. Whenever anything was wrong, it was very easy to approach the correct people to deal with any issues.

The overall placement was quite organised, the tasks were split between two Placements students. I was based in Stockton and the other Placement student was based in Peterborough. The team was going through many changes such as a member of the team going into retirement and the recruitment of a replacement. During that time the tasks and responsibilities were split between both of us and it all worked out very well.

When I first started my placement, I mentioned to my manager I was interested in being part of events or managing projects around different events since that was an area if great interest for me and I was able to manage and plan everything for a very important event aimed at increasing the company's customer satisfaction. Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed it and I learned a great deal from that experience. I also took part in many different training sessions aimed at different aspects of work life that were very helpful.

Cummins offer many different graduate schemes which are very appealing. Although there is no graduate schemes for Project Management, there are many others which are very interesting such as Finance, Engineering and Marketing. The Marketing one is rotational meaning you may be able to live in 4 different countries across Europe.

Since there was only one other placement student and they were based in Peterborough, there were not that many social opportunities with fellow placement students. And as a team we would go out monthly which was also nice. I chose to stay at Stockton because I had many friends who were at University there so social scene was not as important to me.

Everything about living in Stockton was very very cheap, especially considering the salary.

Since Stockton has one of Durham Uni's campuses and is also quite close to Middlesbrough, it was not bad. Most of my friends did not go on placement schemes so I still met up with them often and I was able to go to uni events still.

Quite a few opportunities. There were work sports team and they usually meet up once a week, however I was not a part of that. One of the Project Managers runs a weekly film club in the town centre, which is something that appealed to me more and that was so good I still enjoy attending it from time to time.