Study manager Review

I really enjoyed all the opportunities available to me, especially the chance to visit other sites and area of the business as well as becoming a STEM ambassador and making great friends for life. Some of the work was enjoyable but I did not enjoy as much as expected as a lot of the work was not as set-up for me as I would have liked and the transition period could have been better.

The work I did was often valued by colleagues but I would have liked more feedback on my work. Sometimes I think my role could have been valued more in terms of the work I did. I would also liked to have a better introduction to the team or some team-building activities to get to know my colleagues as this can be quite daunting at the start of placement and probably could have helped better my the integration.

I don't think I got the best experience in terms of support and I did not get as much support as I could have hoped for. I think it could have worked better to have a supervisor for all managers to align the expectations of students and balance their workload as a lot of the students were talking about differences between their placements under the same job title.

I was fairly busy on a daily basis, being on a couple of different studies meant I really had to balance my time and try to attend all meetings, which could often meant prioritising one over another. I also partook in other activities around the site such as site events and STEM event which filled in any spare time

I was given a lot more responsibility than expected and more came with time. I would have liked some extra guidance at times as I had never undertaken a lot of the tasks before and was expected to be able to do them after online training rather than face to face help. Nethertheless, it has been good for my development to be put in a new situation and figure out how to find solutions.

I developed a host of skills on my placement that I would have never had the opportunity to at university. This was through both my study work as well as the other opportunities such as organising STEM events for school children. I also got an insight into a huge company, how it operates and what a job here would be like, which is invaluable.

The office generally had a good atmosphere, it was especially good later on in the placement when I became more friendly with my colleagues. The office is open plan with hot desking so you are always meeting new people everyday depending on where you sit. I would have liked more opportunities to interact with people outside my department through activities.

The overall placement was not well set-up and it felt like everyone was unprepared for placement students to start. There was not effort made to give an overlap with the existing students as well as confusion over who managers would be. The first week could have been done much better and it all felt very unprepared.

The company gave us a lot of opportunities to develop our knowledge and skills - I'm not so sure about investing in us but we were allowed to reach out to people in the company as well as pursue any development opportunities at other sites and on site, such as women in leadership employee resource groups.

I think it's good that placement students can apply to the graduate scheme in house before applications open to the public, however I think a lot more could be done to encourage graduates coming back in other ways that don't want to join a graduate scheme or more information on other ways to join the company.

There was a good social scene for placement students with lots of stuff organised by IP unite as well as placement students on site. The social scene with colleagues was not great and very few events were organised in the year, I think this wasn't helped by the age gap between students and permanent employees and people living in very different places.

The cost of living in London is very expensive wherever you live and transport out to the site could be expensive too. Socialising in London is also expensive for drinks and food, although the living wage is adjusted, it can still be expensive for placement students. There was limited places to socialise around the office and everyone would go into London for drinks.

The nightlife in the area we would was pretty much non-existent you would have to travel into London for any nightlight, which as mentioned above is pretty expensive compared to the average university. There was not even a close pub that you could walk too and I think it would have helped with socialising if there were more nearby facilities.

There were a lot of opportunities to get involved with outside of our day-job, especially for students we were allowed to visit other sites and reach out to other members of staff, as well as becoming STEM ambassadors, organising STEM event and attending external careers fairs. There was also event organised by IPunite to get involved with outside of work.