Summer Placement Review

I really enjoyed the overall experience as it ran extremely smoothly. I was able to fit in straight away as the help I was provided was adequate enough for me to excel during my time there and the staff made me feel extremely comfortable. The work they gave me was unique which is valuable to me,

I would say that the staff here were always at hand when I had questions and would explain them patiently with me until I understood clearly. While I think they provided enough attention to me for the placement, I believe they could've made more effort to get to know me more so that I would be enticed to be part of the team and enjoy coming to work more as this was experienced in other placements and made the experience better for me.

The supervisor was great in that they prepared tasks each week in advance to ensure that I wasn't without. If any question was at hand they would go above and beyond to solve my query. One negative I would mention is that it would've been appreciated if the line manager actually said goodbye at the end of the placement or had a sit down to reflect on my time and receive feedback.

I was constantly busy as my manager had set me tasks that would fill up each and every day. The 6-week placement was primarily focused on one project which had me doing the same write up for a continuous three weeks which was due to the demand for deadlines.

I was primarily focused on working on one particular project that was demanding due to the upcoming deadline. I was happy to work on this project as it was something new and I could get a lot of responsibility. However, on the other hand, I would say that it would have been valuable for me to have worked on more projects to have that diversity.

It was valuable to have worked on the projects that I worked on during my time here. If I was to work on a project of a similar area then I could prove particularly useful in the future. Furthermore, site visits and working with other technical consultants was eye-opening.

The general atmosphere in the office was calm and friendly, comfortable enough for me to be able to work effectively. There were often times when people baked and you could buy food which was nice and the working environment was adaptable in terms of hot-desking (although sometimes limited spaces) and so forth.

The internship was well set up as I was pretty much on the first day ready to work as the training was done on the first day. There isn't anything to really critique however I would suggest that to improve the line manager could construct a personal development programme to have reviews and gain feedback.

The placement was valuable as a learning programme for me and I appreciate this as I have learnt a lot from this.

The company is a well known and respected employer in general and in specific to my field of work. They're a global company and this interests me as I have lived abroad before and this is also my future goal. However, I feel it would be better to integrate the summer placement with the graduate scheme then keep it separate. For example, I received a graduate job offer at the end of my placement (other company) based on my performance rather than me having to reapply again the year after.

There were not any other placement students.

Relatively cheap for lunch around the corner from a cafe or local supermarket but I lived in a nearby city so I commuted.

Although I live in a nearby city and was commuting for the placement, the nightlife in Leeds is notoriously well known for being a good night out. This is have experienced many times myself but only outside of the placement as the members in my team didn't mention this and had families/married and not many young graduates in the team to have taken this up.

There were opportunities to get involved such as the Gay Pride Parade, an outdoor event (which was sadly torrential rain) and one drinks even in the six weeks. Sadly I was away on all those occasions and could not attend but it was great that the invite was there for me.