Credit Risk Analyst Review

I enjoyed the working hours and flexibility of them (i.e. agile working, working from home, non strict start/finish time). I also enjoyed the social aspect of the office. Overall, however, there was not enough work and not enough work that was challenging, which made the days go by very slowly and I did not feel productive.

I felt valued when I did work as team members always appreciate your work and praise you. There are also awards and special mentions if you do something good. I would have felt more valued if I had been given more work as it would have proved that they could rely on me.

I was given ample support in day to day tasks by people in my team and was not afraid to ask questions about how to go about tasks. I was not given enough support/guidance in terms of being given tasks to do and ensuring that I was always busy/working on something.

When I actually had work to do I felt busy as I would work hard to get it done quickly. However the work came in stages, I was not very busy on a day to day basis, only when it was a period where work was readily available for me.

The work that I was given was actually used and given to senior stakeholders, which gave me a sense of responsibility and awareness of what the work I was doing was going to be used for. The only reason I have not rated this higher is because while the tasks I were given were important, there weren't many of them.

Training in programming languages will be helpful with my degree, and will also be very useful in applying for future jobs as this is definitely a valued skill. Also, training presentation skills will be useful in the future for both my degree and future jobs. I did not rate this higher as I think I could have learnt more in terms of technology.

Good atmosphere. Everybody in the office is friendly and there are always people willing to chat to you. They also make an effort to do things as a group and make you feel welcome from the start. There was also a nice community of other placement students who were very social.

The organisation to begin with was very good, with lots of useful training in the first few months and work ready for us to start on. As the year went on, organisation was lacking and it seemed like there was not enough work for us to do and no other training put in later in the year.

The company invested lots of time in the beginning of the placement in training us in things such as computer programming languages, and insights as how the other teams work. There could have been more training and development throughout the year however, not just in the first few weeks.

There are lots of opportunities to progress from placement to a graduate scheme or graduate job. The company are very good at encouraging these and helping to fast track you if you are hard working. However, these opportunities are not that appealing given the overall enjoyment I got out of this year.

The social scene between placement students is great. A big effort is made in the beginning of the year to get to know each other and make friends. At lunches and after work, people often get together. Colleagues are also very social and often go for team lunches and/or drinks.

Living in the student area of the city made it very cheap and still easy to get into work. House prices often come with bills included which is useful. Socialising is also relatively cheap but there are a variety of more upmarket or expensive places that you can go to.

Being in a student city for the year meant the nightlife was very good. There was always something going on and the area was lively. Since it is a big city there is also a variety of options for nightlife and bars rather than just cheap student clubs and bars.

There were ample opportunities given by both the individual teams and the community of placement students to be social and do fun activities outside of work. Living in a big city, it was also easy to find new activities do on your own or with friends from outside of work.