Quality IP Review

The team I worked with very kind and welcoming, but the nature of our work meant their were large fluctuations in workloads. This resulted in some weeks where I had to work in the evenings and many weeks where I didn't have enough work to do, which was quite dull.

I did feel valued by my team and they made sure to tell me how much they appreciated what I'd done. However, no one in my team was based in the UK and so I didn't work often with any of the colleagues I shared an office with, this left me feeling out of the loop and meant no one knew what I was doing/working on.

I was given lots of management and support by my manager even though he was based in another country. I did not receive guidance or support from the people responsible for placement students in our department.

There was very rarely a perfect balance. I occasionally had too much work and had to work late into the evening, but more frequently, I either did not have enough work or only had tedious work which didn't teach me much about the business.

It's difficult to assess this as I was not part of any critical projects, but for most of the projects I worked on, I was given full control with guidance from my manager.

The skills I've developed will probably not help much in my degree as I'm currently studying a science degree and my placement was solely business focussed. However, I have gained or improved several skills which are transferable to future careers, i.e. communication, project management, leadership

The area I was working in was recognised as being very hard-working and high stress. During my time here there were also two major reorganisations which led to several redundancies. Therefore, the atmosphere in the office could often be strained and was noticeable in the number of people choosing to work from home more frequently.

The placement was relatively well-organised but there was no structure within the department to make sure placement students were getting enough work and support. My placement was the first of it's kind in the department and so wasn't as developed as others, meaning there was no framework of work or responsibilities.

I was able to partake in any of the training opportunities offered by the company and access all their training resources. However, I was not offered any external (and therefore transferable) training as other IPs are (though this is a rarity).

I would consider for applying for a job here in the future, but I am not applying to their graduate scheme as I do not currently wish to pursue a career in business.

Not really. There was an organisation run by students which was meant to set up social events but they were few and far between.

I was based in London so living and socialising costs were high.

London, so everything is available, just have to rely on the tubes running.

There were frequent opportunities to get involved with charity events which were associated with work but beyond that not much was advertised.