Economist Review

I really enjoyed it, the work was both rewarding and enjoyable! I also found the people I worked with motivated me and showed me the best way for me to work. There were a lot of learning and development opertunities which you are urged to take to help your own devloepment and become a better employee

I was used in a way which benefited myself and the team with some work being more challenging and other work being more admin. There was a lot of meeting with people which was valuable experience and exposure to take into other jobs in the future. I was often used for jobs as they would think of me as a way to develope my skills

I had multiple managers while on placement and each had their own style. Each was as effective at getting me the guidance I needed to develop and gave me different ways I could organise and prioritise my work. This helped me find my own style by convening parts of each of my managers

I wa a fairly busy by the kindle and end of my placement after my work load had increased and my team had more of an idea of my abilities. At the start there was a lot of reading around the work to make sure I understood it all but once that was established the work came thick and fast

I was never asked to lead on work however I was responsible for team events which had to be ran smoothly. I was never actually solely responsible for work but parts of my work did make it into other presentations and meetings showing how my work could benefit the team

I have found the skills I learnt with excel has been very useful so far at uni and the skills I have been able to add on my cv to make me stand out at the sifting stage of a job interview. My presentation skills were developed on placement and have already found myself more confident in speaking at uni

It was always a very nice place to be, even during the busy times when the work load was potentially too much for each of the members of the team there was a still a positive vibe where people would help ecavother to meet the deadlines asked of them by ministers

The set up was very organised, the department had many students so we had regular meetings aswell as cross department meetings to get a better idea of the work everyone else was doing. There was also shadowing and mentoring offered to get exposure in different roles working the government at different grades

There was a lot of training I underwent with classes and seminars urgered each week. I also went to days of lectures on things to develope as an economist instead of just to develope in the role I was currently in. There was a large emphasis on being a well rounded employee

The post grad route is very appealing and is something that I would be happy to allly for. Having seen how much the post grad students had developed while I was on placement it has made the whole thing very motivating for me to one day work back at the department

There were some social events however most of the students did their own thing on a night and I found socialising with work colleges to be hard because of different working patterns and work load withing the same department. There were some sports events however I didn’t take advantage of these

Westminster was a very expensive place to work and living around there was unrealistic. My commute was around 45 minutes in to work as this was the kind of range I could afford on my placement pay. The pay however wa a good which did make it possible to live while down in london

The night life was very good in London as expected, there is something to do for everyone and whatever you are into you could find an interest. There are clubs bars and sports fasilties everywhere as well as lots of parks and museums which I found very interesting to go to

There was not that many opportunities after work to do things, but there was monthly student meetings which we would then go out after but they didn’t last long and by the end of the placement had died down to maybe three or four people turning up which was something I ended up not going to