System Analyst Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement at National Grid as I was given meaningful work with high responsibility. It was clear what role I played in my team and the wider business from the start which really helped me understand my team’s processes. I have really enjoyed the amount of training that National Grid has invested in the placement students, which quickly brought us back up to speed for our technical knowledge.

My colleagues in both my team and the wider business have been extremely supportive in helping me settle into my role and also through my development. I have had no issue in approaching anybody in the business to ask for help in understanding processes or to find out information about National Grid. I truly felt like a permanent employee and did not feel held back due to being an industrial placement student.

I have had fantastic support from my supervisor who has invested time in teaching me how to use software and also has helped bring me up to speed on financial terminology. He understood that as an industrial placement student I would require more time to adapt to the role and this was not a burden to him. If ever I came across an issue I felt I could raise this in confidence that even if I was wrong I would get an explanation behind this and not be looked at differently.

Working in finance you get used to having processes that occur each month with the same deadlines. This makes it easier to organise your workload and prioritise tasks. Even as an Industrial Placement Student I was given a high number of tasks to which I was responsible for delivering and so workload was always high throughout the month. Some months I did experience a lower workload, however, i took this as an opportunity to get involved in projects outside of my team such as volunteering which ensured that there was never a dull moment.

I was given a high level of responsibility during my placement as I was the process owner for a number of reports which were delivered to high level stakeholders. For these reports I was required to collate information, present this in a reader friendly way and issue these to key stakeholders who would make decisions based on the numbers that I provided.

The financial knowledge that I have gained at National Grid links directly to my financial degree and so I will be able to transfer the business experience I have gained into my studies through case studies. I have seen first-hand how a business budgets and forecasts and have been involved in these processes which have increased my understanding of how a business operates.

The National Grid Warwick office houses around 3,000 employees and so it can seem daunting seeing unfamiliar faces around the office every day. However, there are opportunities to attend events such as business awareness talks and sports clubs which allow you to network and meet people across the business. This ensures that all employees are made to feel valued and welcome. The office also has a hot desk policy and so it is easy to meet new people around the office which creates a good atmosphere.

The placement scheme had a very good structure in terms of quarterly reviews. Reviews were student lead and followed the same format each time. It was made very clear to us at the start of the placement what was expected of us and this was reinforced at each review. I was also involved in the Student Quality Improvement Group which helped smooth out any issues we had in our placement as well as improve further any of the positives for future students. We were involved in organising knowledge share days and site visits which were part of the placement structure which helped improve our skills.

We had a lot of training with all the industrial placement students which targeted improving our commercial and business awareness and also personal development. The training helped develop our development plans and focused on improving our objectives giving us areas to develop. In Finance we also had accounting training courses which taught us about accounting terminology which is commonly used around the office and also how basic T accounts work with Credits and Debits.

The Industrial Placement scheme at National Grid is a direct route into the Graduate programme and is to be treated like a yearlong interview in which you should showcase what you have to offer in order to secure a place on the Grad Scheme. The Grad Scheme gives you the chance to explore different areas of Finance as well as completing your accounting qualification which is a great way to start a career after university.

At the Warwick office there were 8 Industrial Placement Students who met for Lunch every day when we could and also met up after work to go out for meals and drinks. There was an issue with socialising with students that were not based in Warwick as National Grid have offices all around England so travel for these students was an issue. It is also common that you would go for meals for colleague’s birthday and leaving events during work which is great as it brings the team together.

The cost of living is high around Warwick and especially in Leamington Spa, many students chose to rent rooms which cost around £500 per month. However, if you live in Leamington there is a free shuttle bus which will take you to work so travel would be cheap. Leamington Spa is fairly expensive for its nightlife, expect to pay £4 a pint but there is a Wetherspoons!

Leamington has a good nightlife especially when the students from the surrounding universities are around as it makes it a lot busier. There are a couple of clubs but Leamington is mainly good for its bars, which host live music near enough every weekend, and the bars are very close to each other so you won't have to taxi between them.

There are quite a few sporting groups that you can get involved in such as Squash or Football which run every week. These are promoted through Corner Club which also gives discounts to tickets for events at the Birmingham NEC.