Commercial Analyst Review

First and foremost, the team I worked with was very friendly which made settling in easy. It also made day to day work more enjoyable, particularly knowing that I was surrounded by people who were happy to help me out. Besides this, the network of placement students and interns was well established at the beginning. By sharing our experiences the first few weeks in the office was made less daunting. I was given a variety of objectives over the year which kept me engaged with the role and gave satisfaction upon completion. I also knew that if I had too much or too little work my managers would be receptive to a sensible conversation around it. I was encouraged to use my annual leave throughout the year to recharge, and on the couple of occasions that I was sick I was able to take paid sick leave or work from home.

I always felt valued by my collagues throughout the year, which manifested itself in different ways. Early on, when I had more questions, people always took the time to give me a full answer as well as good suggestions for sources of further information. As I progressed throughout the year and took on more responsibility, people would value my opinion/insight on various topics.

In my case I had two managers I was split between during the week, as well as a business coordinator who managed the placement-specific aspects of my year. All three of them were supportive whenever I came to them with a question. Notably, after my first review I drafted a development plan which I ran by each of them. All of these conversations gave me some really great feedback to use, and I appreciate the time each of them took to help me with this. At the start of the year they gave me an appropriate level of structure around objectives, and as I grew into the role they took on board my suggestions for pieces of work I could do.

Being split between the two teams (part of one wider team) meant I was constantly juggling priorities and pieces of work. This led to me being pretty busy on most days. On top of this, as placement students we were pushed to go to networking events and the like which had to be fit into the schedule as well. While it was sometimes stressful it was definitely better than being sat there twiddling my thumbs!

Early on I had a piece of work creating some graphs which were published externally and used for months by the team, so even at that stage my work had a noticeable impact. Throughout the year I did a number of analyses which were a major factor in some decisions being made by senior management. I also attended a number of our conferences, and by the end of the placement I was answering direct queries from external stakeholders on the subject matter I had come to understand (both in a forum and one-to-one setting).

The main skills which are useful for degree studies is simply organisation and time management. Having the stucture of a working day is significantly better than the more freeform style I had in my early years at university! I've also been exposed to a number of project management tools which will come in useful time and time again in my professional and personal life.

Of course this varied from day to day, but in general there was a positive atmosphere. The company serveas a unique and important purpose (keep the gas and electricity flowing) which contributes to a feeling that the work done there matters. As I said previously, the team is very friendly which meant that if someone was feeling down, they would be buoyed by the team. If there was ever a stressful event people would feel the stress, but the team always banded together and after the fact would celebrate success.

For me, the organisation of the placement scheme was its only real flaw. For a large portion of the year we didn't receive much training and it was sometimes easy to forget this was a placement year rather than a full time job. A lot of placement aspects fell on us as the students to organise and execute - while I can understand the value in this it was sometimes frustrating as we were also expected to continue delivering in our teams. The assessment of our performance was mostly sensible, however the calibration between the students felt inconsistent at times, particularly with the finance students. We did have some very valuable training towards the end of the scheme, though I even feel this could have come a couple of weeks earlier.

We had a few pieces of training throughout the year, which were welcome but I feel we could have received a bit more. Most of our training was experiential, which I don't really see as an investment since that work which was developing me was also added value for the company.

The graduate scheme seems very good in terms of the amount of training you receive, the ability to work in three different parts of the company and the competitive salary. The variety of roles within the company as well as the importance of what they do is the main appeal for me.

Absolutely! We all met in the first week at training and throughout the year ate lunch together. Besides this, we would meet up for drinks and meals out some evenings. We kept in touch in a Whatsapp group to share experiences and information. The only reason I'm not giving a 10 is that a couple of the students were in more remote locations, so not everyoen was always party to this (though when they came to the main office in Warwick we would go out that evening).

It's possible to live with students from the nearby Warwick university, so rent can be fairly cheap if you hunt around. Besides that, sensible supermarket shopping means food can be fairly cheap too. In terms of socialising it's mostly restaurants and bars, which aren't the cheapest but aren't outrageous either.

The nightlife here isn't that good, though that's not something I'm really interested in.

Not hugely that I was aware of.