L2 Workload Manager/Support Engineer Review

My placement was very enjoyable as it gave me the perfect blend of client and technical work which is what I was looking for in my placement. I was given the freedom to operate how I wanted given that my main role was fulfilled. This gave me spare time in which I used to further develop my technical skills.

I felt extremely valued by my colleagues as my role in the team was important to the teams success. As part of my role was to filter out customer cases and ensure that they were for our team I was able to eliminate this first step for the other team members allowing them to focus more on their workload.

My manager, mentor and surrounding colleagues were very supportive and helpful when it came to my personal development and proved very knowledgeable when I was faced with a technical problem which I hadn't come across before. I was able to approach them with no fear anytime I had a problem or needed help.

My busyness regarding my core role varied on a day to day basis depending on how many customer cases would arrive on that day. Some days would be very busy and other would be very quiet. Usually there was some other task I would be involved in that would keep me busy while the customers cases were quiet.

I was given quite a lot of responsibility given that my role was quite important to the team. I would often be the first person to respond to a customer when a case arrived and made sure that the cases were assigned fairly throughout the team. I had to monitor the customer cases as they came in to ensure they were being worked in a timely manner which would directly impact the customer satisfaction score of the team.

I managed to build on some existing technical and non technical skills I already had as well as learn new ones in the process. Technical skills like troubleshooting problems and understanding the problems customers were having will help to assist me in my degree studies in computer science as problem solving is a large part of this. I also developed other skills like teamwork and adaptability as I was working with a team that was largely remote and the organisation was undergoing rigorous process change. These skills will help in both my degree study and any further jobs I will undertake.

The atmosphere was quite dull at times given that most of my team was not based in my office and most other teams would sporadically turn up on a variety of different days. It was quite lively on the rare occasions where most of the office would turn up but on the whole was quiet.

The placement was well organised from a high level and the onboarding and integration process was smooth and easy. I had monthly meetings with my manager and periodic reviews every few months with my early professionals manager where I was able to talk about my progress and track my development.

The company invested quite heavily in me with regards to training and development. There were many free online courses delivered by the company in which I was able to acquire a basic understanding of new emerging technologies and business fundamentals. There was also the opportunity to improve my technical acumen by increasing my role further to that of a support engineer where I would work with deeper problems that would require more thought.

Future prospects are quite appealing as if you do well on your placement across then you are more likely to be considered straight away for a graduate position. This all comes down to personal preference and what roles are available withing the company at the time. I did not choose to apply back as I wanted to move on and do something different after having a taste of this company.

The social scene among people in my office was not the greatest at all. There were about 10 placement students total in out office and we unfortunately only managed to plan and execute 1 event in which only 5 people turned up. As for socialising with colleagues outside of work, this was mainly going out for lunch on occasions and popping to the nearest petrol station for food (As it was the only thing nearby). Organising events with the other placement students proved to be difficult given the area of outer London we were in.

Cost of living in outer London was cheaper than central however was still expensive. I lived close to the office and my commute was just a bus there and back. There was also a free bus service from nearby train station to the office which helped. Socialising was not too expensive as there was nothing too fancy around. You had your basics like restaurants and cinemas in surrounding areas. All the fun and more expensive stuff was more toward central London where it would take about 45 mins - 1 hour to get to.

The nightlife where I lived was more or less non existent. There were a few pubs and restaurants about but no bars or nightclubs nearby. If you wanted to go out you would have to travel out of the area closer to central London to get to anywhere that was worth it.

Outside of my job role there were quite a few opportunities to get involved in, most of which took place in the Central London office. Other opportunities included being able to go to schools and teach them how to program. As for outside of work in general there was a weekly football match nearby which was a good stress relief.