Placement Student Review

I enjoyed the people and the experience of becoming a member of the office more than I did the work. I was welcomed into the office and it was nice to feel like a valued member of the team. Despite this I found the work mostly mundane and disappointing on the whole.

Many of my colleges made me feel welcome and supported me well throughout the placement. Many came to value my knowledge and utilized the skills I had. On the other hand some of the members of the office seemed to treat me different compared to graduates and other members which was disappointing. Despite this on the whole I made some good friendships.

I was given little support from my supervisors and management. I feel like I was undervalued and underutilized by them throughout the placement and that I was their last point of call. My immediate colleges on the other hand were very helpful and contributed massively to the training and development I received

At the start of the placement my workload was good and I was busy for the majority of the time as I was learning the ropes. I was also busy at a few other occasions when projects were coming towards completion. However for the majority of the year my workload fell away and I was left with increasingly little to do.

I was given very little responsibility although this did increase towards the completion of my placement as I became more knowledgeable and more experienced. Despite this increase I always felt like a last port of call for most of the tasks I was trusted with. I had expected to be given more opportunities.

I do not think much I have learnt will be applicable to my final year of studies. Most of what will be useful to take into the job market is general office skills as well as communication and teamwork but the biggest selling point will be the excel skills that I have gained.

The General atmosphere was poor. I think this was down to the layout of the office and due to a recent turnover of staff. The office is old and does not have many modern touches or common spaces to hold discussion or interact with coworkers. I think modernization would help more.

The placement was set up poorly overall. The human resources department is very good and induction and initial training was well organised. However there was little plan in terms of training and integration into the department and I was left largely down to my own devices and well as the people in my immediate area for training and development.

The firm invested very little into training and development. Most of my training was carried out by people who were sat close by and those I shared tasks with. There was little opportunity to be engage in extra training although a few workshops were put on for other functions in the company

Future prospect of employment are not very appealing. I would possibly consider reapplying to a different department as I hear that the placement students in other areas of the company have had more structured and much more enjoyable placements. However I would not return to the department I am currently in unless there was a big shake up.

I did not have much interaction with the other placement students however there are other young colleges within the department and a good social scene developed within the small group of friends within the department. Other departments with more placement students have a better social scene simply down to the number of students.

The cost of renting shared houses is pretty low, shared houses can range from 50 up to about 160 per week depending on where they are and how nice they are, most are around 80. Food and drink are fairly cheap so weekly costs don't exactly break the bank either.

The night life is really good. There are loads of clubs and bars. Taxis are not that expensive and drinks are very cheap. Few places charge entry and this means a night out can be very cheap loads of events get put on. There is also loads of other activities that can be done on an evening.

The odd night out gets put on at work but this is never subsided by the company as lots of other placement providers do. Most of the opportunities to get involved in activities outside work are just organised between groups of friends and not by the company itself but this means you get more of a say in what you do i guess.