Purchasing Undergraduate Review

There were certain aspects of the job that I did enjoy and others that I did not as with any job but there were more aspects that i didn’t like then I did. I enjoyed the training that was made available to me through success factors and the range of projects I was able to complete along with a placement within a different department.

Through out my placement I developed a great relationship with my mentor, this being the highlight of my placement. However in terms of my team didn’t feel like I was a part of the team and that my 12 month project was the only reason I was in that team.

I had great support from my mentor, who would help me with every aspect of my working, including answering any “silly” questions I had and felt I couldn’t ask my manager. In terms of my manager I have bi-weekly 1:1’s with them where I could speak to them about things I needed help with/ permission for.

On a daily basis I was relatively bored. Some days I would find myself over run with work and meetings but this was quite rare and mostlybfound I was bored and finding work for myself. One project for a whole year is not enough work to keep you going and this is very demoralising

I was given a relative amount of responsibility when it came to my 12 month project and I was also trusted to go to meetings and organise my own work in terms of placement in another department. However I wasn’t given much in the way of being made responsible for doing other work.

The skills I gained at jaguar Land Rover will be invaluable for me in both my studies and future career. Thoughout my placement my confidence in most skill areas such as presentation, communication, excel, project management and team work exceeded anything I thought I could achieve. And this is all down to this placement.

I found in the office that different people from different teams didn’t really mix and people stuck with people they knew. However the office did take part in a number of social and charitable activities such as a charity pub quiz, Macmillan coffee mornings, bike rides for charity and Christmas meals.

The initial recruitment stage was a bit of a shambles, a lot of undergraduates didn’t find out where they would be based until a few weeks before the placement began, making it hard to find a house to rent. However while on placement organisation was good with planned tours of sites, and induction day and undergraduate based report outs.

The firm was very good at allowing undergraduates have the same training opportunities as all other employees. I was able to take part in both role related and skill related training courses which helped increase my confidence and ability to do my job. I’m addition to this my manager was supportive in approving my requests to do the training.

I have heard good things about the graduate scheme and would also consider working for them in the future - the company offers good employee benefits. However i want to try different avenues first and I feel your experience in this company is very dependant on the team and manager you are with.

There was a good social scene among fellow undergraduates that were in my department where we would meet up after work or on the weekends. Among colleagues at work there wasn’t any social events organised that were work related or for charity therefore this aspect socially was quite poor.

Cost of living where I lived was quite high compared to what I’m used to. However where I worked costs were quite cheap but I didn’t tend to socialise here. Therefore staying to where I lived was relatively expensive especially based on the undergraduate wage that I was on though. However the bars and restaurants were very nice!

Nightlife was poor in the areas I worked in because I wasn’t in the Coventry city centre, I was based on Warwick University site. However from speaking to other undergraduates a night out in Coventry was quite fun and cheap however quality of venues wasn’t very great compared to what they were used to.

A number of opportunities were available such as joining a netball team or rounders team however these opportunities did not appreal to me very much so I didn’t take part. There was also a JLR football team that I knew a few undergrads joined and enjoyed doing that on a weekly basis.