Future Talent Coordinator Review

I have thoroughly enjoyed my industrial placement year at computacenter. This industrial placement year has helped me develop so much, both personally and professionally. I have had endless opporutnities to run my own projects, i have had the opportunity to travel internationally and have had the opportunity to attend some fantastic external events. I can genuuinly say that completing an industrial placement here at Computacenter was one of the best decisions and best opprotunity I have ever had date as my personal confidence has improved so much. Even more importantly, I now know the area where i wish to pursue my future career which i did'nt even know exisited before I joined Computacenter.

Throughout my year at Computacenter i always felt valued by all colleagues. This was through consistent feedback sessions with my line manager, Excellence in action awards which are £10 awards given across the business nominated by all employees and also the fact that you are treated as an a permanent member of staff not an 'industrial placement student'. I was also awarded a special recognition award for outstanding contribution for my palcement year which was particulary nice to achieve at the end of my 13 months!

I was given constant support and guidance from my line manager. We had either weekly or bi weekly hour long one to ones which were really beneficial. This hour of time was for me to talk about whatever i wished to based on work load, what i've been up to, upcoming projects or anywhere that i could do with some extra support. This worked really well as i often liked to refelct on my work and gain further guidance before final completion.

I had perfect balance throughout my placement year in terms of workload. My role was very seasonal based which i loved as i could prepare my work load based on the upcoming timeline. For instance, October- November was extremly busy due to the univerisity recruitment timelines but this was communicated when i started in July so i was prepared for the busier times. Also, in December my team were much quieter which i was also prepared for so my project was on creating an internal intranet site for my team which allowed me to work from home. so the flexibility throughout the year has been fantastic!

I was given high levels of repsonsibility throughout my industrial placement year which really benefited me. I had a great level of responsibility within my team as i was the lead owner of a key initiative within the team. This was completly mine to manage and run and only asked for advice or input when help was needed. This was very motivating being able to see the results and outcome of my work.

This year i have been really able to develop new skills that i may not have been able to develop academically. For instance, i have had high epxosure within employment marketing and social media management. This is not something that is necessarily linked with my degree but this will be a great link to particular modules within recruitment and selection. My development this year also helped me select my elective module which is now more of an interest due to what i have learnt this year. I have also completed numerous training courses which will benefit my degree such as presence and imapact which will really benefit me when having to present back my coursework.

The atmosphere in my office was fantastic! everyone was so welcoming and always available for a chat whether it was work related or just for a general chat. I also loved the fact that the office was always full of us young people walking around from apprentices, placement students and graduates this was great especially during my first few months it made me feel a lot more comfortable with working in a very corporate business environment.

My year in industry was incredibly organised. Once i had been offered the role I had regular phone calls with my line manager before i started and i was also invited into the office a month before i started and taken out for lunch with my team. This made it much easier for me to understand my role and i knew exactly what was expected of me. At the beginning of my year it was indicated my busier times and quieter times and key dates. This was really useful as it made it easier for me to plan my time and i knew exactly what was upcoming.

During my placement I had a number of opportunities with both personal and professional development. I attended a presentation skills course, an intranet site editorial course and a presence and impact course. all of these courses were great as they were all practical and very interactive. Each of these courses would have cost my department money to send me on this course, so i am incredibly grateful that Comptutacenter invested in me as i can now return back to university with both improved professional and personal skills.

Future employment at Computacenter would be the ideal option for me after i have graduated. I would love to go back to CC either on a first level entry job or a graduate role. I have communicated my desire to come back so i am hopeful that an opportunity may arise for myself. With what i would like to do there is no set graduate role but i am hopeful that there may be an opportunity to start at a first level entry job with them.

Yes, the placement students were sociable we often had nights outs, lunch offsite and even celebrated each others birthdays on weekends! Computacenter also have a fantastic community called fresh minds which allows you to meet all new starters within the business so i was able to make some great friends through this platform and also spent lots of time with the graduates!

I lived in Hatfield for my placement year with 3 other placement students. We lived just around the corner from work so it was fantastic as we were able to walk together which was really nice in the summer months! I would say the cost of living was fine as you earn more than enough of your placement year with the salary and Hatfield is also accommodated for students due to the University of Hertfordshire.

Hatfield has a students union which is good as you can visit with a Hertfordshire University student. St. Albans is great which is just a 10 minute journey away. Also London is so easily accessible from Hatfield you can be in London in 20 minutes, so i often visited London!

Yes there was lots of opportunities to get involved in activities. I helped out at a number of CSR events such as our schools outreach programme so i spent one afternoon at a local school talking about employability. I also attended a charity football tournament on a weekend that was set up by computacenter which was also great!