Change Analyst Review

My placement year at Computacenter was an absolutely fantastic start to my career. For such a big company, the values it holds allows young people to thrive in the workplace. I was able to develop my skill set and knowledge as well as enhancing my confidence. Computacenter was a very sociable organisation with many networking events that were brilliant, as well as large cohort of 20 other placement students. Building these relationships and creating close friends made the placement year even more enjoyable.

Throughout my placement I was apart of a global digital transformation programme which was a fast paced and highly pressurised environment. Having the opportunity to manage and lead a variety of different tasks throughout the year made me feel very valued and a true member of the team. Also, being involved in a number of important meetings with senior management lead to a lot of trust, another aspect that made me feel valued.

Throughout my placement year at Computacenter, support and guidance was always available to myself. From having support from my Line Manager where we discussed how to improve my knowledge and skill set, which led to attending and passing a variety of different courses, to having a mentor on my programme who offered me guidance and advice on my stengths and my areas of opportunity and where I can improve. Also, the Future Talent Manger at Computacenter helped and supported me throughout my development, i.e. helping me create a PDP.

Being on a huge global digital transformation programme which was extremely fast paced and had very tight deadlines meant I was always busy and always had work to be getting on with. On a daily basis I could have sevreal meetings, in which some I would have to lead, as well as tasks to be completing at my desk. Also, due to the large scale of the programme, I would also be communicating with employees in offices all over the world, which definitely kept me busy

I was given lots of responsibility during my placement year and had to complete a variety of tasks, some that were very challenging and took me outside of my comfort zone. Most notably, I managed a User Acceptance Testing piece where I had to manage over 20 testers from offices all over the world, to inputting the test data onto a tool I had never used before.

The skills I developed during my placement year have already helped me during my first few weeks back at University and I can also take these skills into my future career and when applying for graduate jobs. One of the best bits of my placement and one I am proud of is completing the PRINCE 2 project management course. This will help me in my final year at University as I am completing a module relating to project management, but also I am looking to start my career in project management, so this is extremely relevant.

Being a part of a huge programme with over 30 people in the team meant the atmosphere in the office was brilliant and enabled me to build relationships with people.

My placement was extremely well organised. From the outset when we had a weeks induction which was a great start and allowed us to settle in, to being assigned to a project before I even started! This enabled me to feel valued and part of the team straight away

Computacenter invested heavily in the placement students. My Line Manger was very active and engaged with my development and allowed me to take part in several courses. The best course I took part in a passed was the PRINCE 2 project management qualification, both foundation and practitoner.

Computacenter offers a few graduate roles which are very appealing to myself as these are the areas I want to start my career in. Having a successful year and networking with important people makes future employment at Computacenter even more likely.

Overall there were around 20 placement students which enabled us to build relationships and have a very good social life. We did a variety of things from nights out to lunches at Nandos.

Luckily I got to live at home during my placement, so I did not have to pay any costs for living. However socialising in London is very expensive.

With the head office in Hatfield, nightlife was pretty non existent, however, with Computacenter having an office in London and due to good transport links, it enabled us to go out and socialise in London, which was fantastic.

Yes there were many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work. These included sports activities, as well as career fairs promoting the company.