Customer Engagement Undergraduate Review

I have thoroughly enjoyed my 12 months working here at VWFS. So much so that I have extended my contract for a further 6 weeks so that I can take on extra responsibility as part of my team. It has taught my a range of new skills which can be carried forward into my future career.

I feel as though I have been very valued by my employees. As mentioned above, my colleagues have requested that I extend my contract further to stay part of the team and carry on additional workloads. We are a close team and frequently go out for team breakfasts outside of working hours.

I have had multiple managers over my placement year. Although both had different styles of management, I was offered a great deal of support by each of them. The first manager would over close guidance and help me with every task until I was confident to take ownership of it. The second allowed me to have full autonomy on tasks, with the knowledge that if I ever needed any amount of guidance or support then I could reach out to him.

My workload this year has been varied. At points (such as in the build up to quarter launch), I could find that I was extremely busy with it often being the case that I would work longer hours (as part of our flexitime/ agile working scheme) to ensure that I could get work done to deadlines. However, there have been other periods in time where I have found that my workload can be less intensive. Overall I have had a good amount of work to complete.

I have found that I have had far more responsibility whilst on placement than I had originally anticipated. Right from day one I was informed that I would have ownership of our brand 'CarFinance.MadeSimple.' with the support of my manager if required,. I was also given responsibility of completing the quarterly launch process for our retailer facing renewals software.

The skills developed whilst on placement will help me in my final year of studies in that I have learnt how to be far more self motivated and organised in my final year. This should ensure that I don't leave my studies until the deadline and can complete the work, whilst having time to comprehensively review and adapt it. I will also take forward skills such as stakeholder management into my future career which will be applicable to all jobs.

It is hard to compare the atmosphere in my work to anywhere else as I have no other 'office' experience. Even though the office can sometimes be quiet, it is a relaxed environment in which you are made to feel that you can speak to anyone. Furthermore, in comparison to our other office, I find that because of the smaller size that the staff here are very friendly and you get to know lots of people across the floor.

The placement has been running for a number of years now at VWFS so I found that the initial on boarding stages of stating my placement was very streamlined and efficient. I also found that if we contacted the HR or L&D undergraduates for work related queries that these would be answered quickly. However, there were some occasions over the year in which we were informed of a task etc. to be done to an extremely short deadline, in these situations a feel as though it could have been organised slightly better.

There were a number of lifeskills sessions that were put on for the undergrads over the year. A number of these included training from a third party suppliers which I found to be extremely useful and I wish we had more of them, however I do appreciate the cost of using these companies when training 27 undergrads. We were also actively encouraged to attend innovation live events as well as signing up to 'Licence2' courses.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my year on placement although I have decided that I wouldn't choose to return into the same role as I am looking to further develop. I would also not apply for the grad scheme here at VWFS from speaking with graduates who are currently on the scheme. However, I would apply for the grad scheme at VW Group.

I found that there was a strong social connection between the current undergraduates and graduates. we frequently planned social events at the weekends and outside of work hours. However, I found there to be less of a social scene with full time members of staff as they had families/friends to go back to after work. That being said, there has been occasions where we have met work colleagues socially.

I have always lived in the north of England (where the cost of living is renowned for being low) so I have therefore found it to be substantially higher than what I am used to. However, with that being said it is something which we can afford due to being paid a competitive salary.

Again living in the north of England (Leeds and Newcastle), I have been fortunate to have a wide array of nighlight available on any night of the week. Milton Keynes offers much less for nightlife. There are a number of bars and one club but further to that, you might need to travel to London or Birmingham.

Work offers a variety of opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work. There a number of social teams such as the football side, as well as constantly being an opportunity to fund raise for charity. Over the year I have enjoyed raising money for the charity 'mind' with colleagues from work. VWFS also offers a range of discounted tickets for places such as the cinema and Thorpe park.