Business Analyst Review

Working on real client work, delivering real value for our public sector client. Being embedded in multiple teams working to deliver the best possible solution for our client. Our hard work was rewarded regularly, with team socials - which sometimes even included days off work to visit a hotel for a celebration.

My team and the client initially knew I was a placement student, but was quickly recognised as one of the graduates, and it was only when I was leaving that people even remembered I was a placement student. Had the respect of my colleagues and client very quickly, and this was cemented by the quality engagement and delivery management team from Deloitte. Travelling across the UK with team members and regular socials, helped us feel like a close-knit family, which I missed when I returned to final year at university.

Constantly, I had multiple managers at any one time, for different areas. For my day to day team, my job role, and my future development at the firm. This meant I was in regular contact with senior people, who were eager to teach me, and give me a chance to grow within the firm.

Varied, depending on the throughput of my team. Some days I had very little to do, which was a nice break - as I was usually very busy. I generally worked 9-5:30 and always left work with something to do the next morning. During one month of my placement I had a very large work load. During this time I was a central part of the delivery team, and learnt a great deal in a month, which helped me become a central part of the project delivery, and respected throughout the project.

Siginifant level of responsibility, there were a series of managers sheilding me initially, but as I grew in the role, with agreement from myself and my managers, I gained a level of authority and ended up engaging with high level officials within the engagement. I also ran workshops, user research sessions, client sessions, and demo's for the client.

I gained significant skills in the area of Business Analysis, in terms of requirement elicitation, and requirement engineering. I also gained significant skills in managing the scope of our work. I also introduced an element of User Experience design into my role, as our UX team was small and under a great degree of pressure. I also received significant external training in Software development: Java & Spring, Javascript & React. I also received external training in Digital Marketing and Google Analytics.

In my office in Belfast the atmosphere was very relaxed and a real close knit family feel. In the client office, the atmosphere was very different, it was extremely fast paced and busy, with a large delivery team embedded in a client environment with client teams. I tended to work mostly in the Belfast office, and travel less regularly to London where our client was based.

Very well structured. I recieved extensive training before reaching project work. I had 6 weeks of training in London, then 3 weeks in Belfast. Half way through the year, we met up with the rest of the placement cohort in London for a check in event to ensure we were all progressing well and happy. We also had a regional placment team which we were embedded in, which organised regular socials for us.

Heavily. One of Deloitte's greatest strengths is Learning and Development. I was offered many additional training courses, some of which were extremely expensive. I took these opportunities when I could. The initial training was in depth and covered core consulting skills, IT training, and risk management training. While introducing me to the opportunities available throughout.

Upon completing the placement year, I was given the opportunity to have an informal interview with the Office lead, where I was asked about my placement year and how I found the experience, and whether I would like to come back. I was offered a Graduate role within 1 month of completing the placement year.

Extensive social scene, regular project socials, regular placement student socials, and office socials. I am now extremely good friends with my fellow placement students and we will continue to be in our new roles with Deloitte. I feel the social scene made it easy to find my feet in the role, and make friends quickly.

During my time at Deloitte, I worked in my home city of Belfast most weeks, which is a very affordable city to live in, with low living costs in terms of rent, and bills. I also spent a portion of my time in London, during which time I was on a generous expenses allowance, which covered all my needs.

Very good in both Belfast and London, I would recommend both in terms of fun things to do at night. Regularly visited new restaurants, bars and clubs with my team, and placement student friends from Deloitte. Usually there was some kind of budget for us which meant we could enjoy ourselves without worrying about costs.

Yes, there were many extra-curricular activities offered in terms of sports etc. We also had regular socials in multiple scenarios, which were very varied. We also could get involved with volunteer work, during work hours, and even work on pro-bono consulting projects with charities during our time between chargeable projects.