Business Intelligence Analyst Review

My work placement with Howdens Joinery has been extremely enjoyable both a professionally and personally. I have learned and experienced many different aspects of the real IT world and have been given plenty of opportunities to learn and grow. In addition I believe my time with Howdens Joinery will provide real benefit to me when on final year at university and I will be able to call on my experience at Howdens for many years to come.

From the minute I began the job, I instantly felt like a member of the team All team members were very encouraging and supportive in offering their help and time with any matter, small or large.

My manager has been very supportive through the entire placement ensuring I was happy with the work I had been given. As well as this I had regular 1 to 1 meetings with my manager which included discussions about current work; future work, current feelings and future career plans. If I was ever unsure about conflicting priorities my manager would always provide support as to which to prioritise.

In the beginning of my placement, I had very little work and was encouraged to focused on the training materials and getting up to scratch with the business and how it operates before tackling real work. However as my knowledge grew I was entrusted with more work and more projects. In my last few months I was particularly busy however my manager frequently checked in with me throughout the year to check that I wasn't overstretched with work.

During my placement I was given ample opportunities to take on as much responsibility as I wanted. This included; taking on projects as a representative of the team, attending an external SAP business event in London as well as taking a prominent role on a large scale project.

I believe I have developed technical skills such as; query writing, testing, universe creation, report creation. I have also developed personal skills such as; organisations, time management, communication, listening, decision making and the ability to work under strict deadlines. My manager has also confirmed that Howdens will be happy to support me during my final year studies with data for my final year project which will be invaluable.

The atmosphere in the office was very friendly with a mix of people from all walks of life with a broad spectrum of interests. Everyone in the office were very friendly and could all have a laugh. There was a family feel to the office with colleagues bringing in sweets and treats regularly for birthdays, anniversaries and other celebrations.

The placement was initially very relaxed in terms of structure as the business is somewhat complex and to understand how things work takes sometime however once I was able to understand I felt more of a structure as I had weekly one t one sessions with team members, I had a training manual to complete on a variety of tasks and I felt like quarterly meetings with my manager aided my progression.

The company offered many courses for personal and professional development from learning workshops to business dinners, there was a lot of opportunities to explore outside of the company.

The company offer a variety of graduate roles in many different areas. They also offer a lot of internal opportunities once in a role so there is a lot of freedom to move form one role to another if the opportunity presents itself.

There were many social events through the placement year including; go karting, rounders, football tournaments for all employees to attend. The company also offered a social benefit day, where employees could pick form a list of planned events such as; paintballing, spa days, cooking days etc and attend once a year, this helped with meeting other colleagues who may not have been base din the same office as me.

I didn't need to venture in to the local area as I live around 25-30 minutes away.

Howdens is quite a family friendly area and doesn't have many if any bars, pubs.

There were plenty of opportunities to attend events outside of work such as; SAP business events, training events however there were also a lot of social events available such as; go karting, rounders, football etc.