Planning Support Decription Review
by National Grid
This review was submitted over 4 years ago, so some of the information it contains may no longer be relevant.
Rating
-
The Role
3.6
-
The Company
3.6
-
The Culture
3.4
- 1. To what extent did you enjoy your work placement or internship?
- 2. To what extent did you feel valued by your colleagues?
- 3. To what extent were you given support and guidance by management/your supervisor(s)?
- 4. How busy were you on a daily basis?
- 5. How much responsibility were you given during your placement?
- 6. To what extent did/will the skills you developed, and training you received, assist you in your degree studies and beyond?
- 7. What was the general atmosphere in your office?
- 8. How well organised was the overall work placement or internship set up?
- 9. In terms of personal training and development, to what extent did the company or firm invest in you?
- 10. What were the perks on your work placement?
- 11. How appealing are future employment prospects within the organisation?
- 12. Was there a good social scene amongst any fellow placement students/colleagues?
- 13. What was the cost of living and socialising in the area you worked in?
- 14. What was the Nightlife like in the area you worked?
- 15. Were there many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work?
The Role
The work environment was amazing, but the work itself was not that interesting.
The projects I was given were clearly necessary and I was left in charge of myself on them (obviously with managerial check-ups every now and again). If I was ever given an extra little piece of work to reduce someone else's work load, they were appreciative.
There was a comprehensive one-one review system on support I might need and guidance to help me with my work. In addition to this I could always ask anyone in my team for a hand and they'd help when they next had 5 minutes spare.
I was given enough control over the deadlines associated with my longterm project that I could adjust how much time I spent on individual things and so ensure my workload was consistent. If I felt I had too much/too little to do, I could always ask my manager to sort it out.
As I continued through the year, I was given more and more responsibility on an ever growing project. By the end I was fully in charge of automating a large scale analysis process for monthly performance indicators on a certain set of safety processes.
The main skill I gained was programming ability in VBA, I went from complete begginer to fluent, and so while I don't use VBA currently, I think it will help me with the computing aspect thagt is necessary for engineering. I also built up a really good knowledge of the energy sector.
The Company
The office was fun but professional.
Apart from some forms getting lost at the beginning, everything went smoothly.
I was given a full set of PPE, was sent on numerous training and knowledge expanding placements, and have been sponsored for my degree.
Flexi Time
Subsidised Canteen
Subsidised/Company Gym
Through my sponsorship I have 3 guaranteed further placements. If the departments I work in are more interesting, then I'll definitely consider their graduate program (which I get to skip to the last stage of testing for).
The Culture
It was fine, I was going through some unrelated personal stuff at the time though, and so didn't end up socialising that much with them.
It was 50:50, my rent was a rip off for what I got, a fairly small (8 metres squared) room with terrible shared facilities for half the price of a huge two person flat.
I'm not really much of a clubber, the bar's were great though
I didn't take up much of them, but there was certainly a lot available.
Details
Placement (10 Months+)
Logistics and Operations
East Midlands
November 2011
