Assistant Project Manager Review

I enjoyed my time at Mace as it has been a unique experience where I have learnt a lot about my strengths and weaknesses and a little bit more about what I want to do when I leave university. I do feel as though I would have got a lot more out of it had I been able to move around onto different projects, rather than staying with one client for the whole duration of the year.

I felt extremely valued by my colleagues. Those with whom I worked would come to me with tasks to do and sometimes they would even ask for my help/ opinion on certain things. In the wider business, I also felt that I was appreciated as an employee at the company; everyone was very friendly and helpful at all times.

My line manager at the beginning of my placement was pretty useless, disengaged and quite happy to leave me completely to my own devices. I had 3 changes of line manager after that all in the space of about a month which was very confusing/ not particularly beneficial to me or my development. For the last 4 months I was finally given a permanent line manager but although he checked up on me regularly, I often felt like I was there for him to offload his work onto me.

It varied throughout the year. I had days where I would hardly do anything and my colleagues would be scraping the barrel to find things for me to do; this was particularly evident during the first 3 months of my placement. I also had days where it was completely hectic and I wouldn't have chance to stop. I would have appreciated a more steady work load.

All in all I was given quite a decent amount of responsibility, such that by the end of the placement I was managing 3 projects by myself. Unfortunately, this was just the closeout stage of the projects. It would have been great to be able to manage a project from start to finish.

I think everything I have done here has been instrumental in my development as a professional. Since I have mostly gained soft skills whilst being here, I believe they are applicable to pretty much every facet of life, at university and in future jobs.

Very pleasant atmosphere in the Mace office. All the people are extremely friendly, will stop for a chat whenever and are more than happy to help answer any questions you might have. Hot desks meant that you could sit next to different people every day which is great to get to know your colleagues.

The HR team did an absolutely fantastic job in setting us up for our placements and they kept up to date with us regularly to see how we were getting on. Unfortunately the business unit I worked in was less instrumental in ensuring I had a successful placement year.

As above, the emerging talent team at Mace are brilliant in ensuring that you have all the skills you might need to carry out your daily job. All placement students gave presentations on their business units to the other students, we had training from professionals outside of the company and had proper feedback sessions with the emerging talent team at the end of the placement. We were provided with every opportunity to develop as young professionals.

As I am not interested in returning to work in the same business unit, I am unsure whether I will return to the company, however I have been informed by the HR team that there is every possibility for me to be able to return in a different role. I think this is great that the team work so hard to get the placement students to come back to the company, regardless of whether it is to the same business unit.

Yes, as there were about 20 of us in total, there was a great social scene amongst the placement students. It is totally up to you how much you wish to meet up with the other placements but the opportunity is there. Any organized drinks I attended I thoroughly enjoyed.

Expensive however as I was living at home, I did not find the costs unmanageable.

Very good - lots to do around the office and therefore we could always try out new bars/ pubs for after work drinks and socials.

Yes, absolutely. There was always something going on in the office, whether it be work drinks with colleagues or networking drinks with the client. Even if nothing had been planned officially, I always found that my colleagues in the sector would be down for a drink or two if you wanted.