Global Communications and Business Support Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement year at Lubrizol, the company really embraces the placement students and the team made me feel really welcome from day one. My role was constantly varied and developing making the year a really enjoyable and worthwhile experience.

I really enjoyed working within my team, right from the start they made me feel welcome and a valued member of the department. Everyone took the time to get to know me and involve me in as many different projects as possible giving me a great insight into everyones roles. I was often invited to brainstorming sessions which made me feel as though my opinion/ideas were valued.

I always felt supported my my manager and other senior member of the team, we worked in an open office environment which made it easy to ask questions and chat to the managers in the department. I also had monthly 1 to 1 meetings scheduled with my manger to discuss any issues I may be having, but more often than not we wouldn't need them as his door was always open as and when I needed any support.

My workload varied depending on how busy the department was/what projects I was currently working on. During the start of my placement year my schedule wasn't too busy, but as the year progressed and I became increasingly involved with projects and other departments I became very busy at times. I enjoyed being busy and managing my time across projects, however the occasional quiet times were useful for catching up on smaller tasks, emails and working on long-term projects.

I felt I was given a good level of responsibility, much more than I expected as a placement student. I often worked on projects with tight deadlines, across the business and with colleagues across the globe.

The skills I developed and experiences I was exposed to across my placement year will hugely benefit me moving into graduate roles and future job applications. I gained a really interesting and wide exposure to a successful, global company which is an invaluable experience at this stage of degree study. My placement year activities and skills will also assist me when completing my final year studies, I now have many real world experiences to draw from, putting theory into context.

There was an excellent atmosphere in our office, we had an open office environment encouraging conversation and asking questions. Everyone I worked with was friendly and we often had lots of laughs in the office, I really enjoyed working within a creative team as a business student. The Hazelwood site overall was also a friendly, welcoming place for a new student.

My placement was set up well, I had clear recurring jobs from my department as well as the marketing department, as well as varied projects that would crop up throughout the year. At times the workload slowed down whilst we waited for projects to be ready for me, but this was still good exposure to how real businesses work. I really enjoyed how varied my role was, as I was only the second student in this department the role was constantly evolving.

My department and manger definitely pushed my development by involving me in as many different projects and departments as possible across the year. The students are involved with all the major training along with the permanent employees. Two courses I attended at Lubrizol were their ethics training and a new culture training day, which I found very useful.

Lubrizol don't offer any form of graduate scheme/job offers for placement students. However, they do have many employees on site that were placement students so there is definitely potential to return if the right role opens up in the future.

There were many events/activities organised by the sports and social club as well as the students. The students all got together to have lunch which was also a good chance to socialise across our departments.

I found it very reasonable to live and socialise in the area.

The site itself is in a rural area just outside Derby, so any social activities/events were normally in Derby city centre which has lots to do and some nice places to eat and drink. Nottingham is also close by and really easy to get to for nights out with the students.

There were lots of activities and trips organised by the sports and social club, as well as a Hollywood themed ball and many charity activities to get involved with.