Consultant Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement as I was immediately welcomed in to the company; the members were so lovely. My manager set me up on a variety of rotations in different parts around the business, so I was exposed to many job roles and people in the company very quickly.

My colleagues were all so welcoming, and they did make me feel valued. They were very supportive; my manager, the career family leader, as well as other members. I was given tasks that I knew were important, so I felt that I was valued and trusted to be successful in that task.

My manager was very supportive from the word go- he was very friendly, and made it very clear that if we needed any help from him then to just ask. I was also given a buddy from day 1, who was an extra support throughout my placement and really helped me settle in. I also had weekly calls with my manager so that he could see how I was getting on, and give me the chance to ask him anything that was on my mind.

This really varied- some rotations I was on had me doing different tasks everyday, whereas others I wasn't as busy. When I was made a manager for my own project, I was busy everyday, and was also writing a CSR newsletter which took up lots of time. As the coronavirus had its effects, it meant in turn that I, amongst many others, had a much lighter workload.

The most responsibility I had was when I was given my own small project to manage. It was perfect because it was big enough for a first time project manager to manage, but not so big that it was an overwhelming amount of responsibility. Before and after that, I had a variety of tasks with varying levels of responsibility attached to them.

My project manager skills were hugely developed, and I believe that this will help in my degree in terms of teamwork, leadership, autonomy, organisation etc. as you had to know what was happening and where at all times on your project. I also qualified as a mental health first aider at CGI, which gave me invaluable life skills beyond my degree.

This really depended on which office I was in: the London office on Fenchurch St had a much more corporate and formal atmosphere, but people were still very friendly and would have a chat with you. In the Solihull office, it was much more relaxed, and the atmosphere was more family-like as there were fewer people and we would often have cafe afternoons or lunches provided.

The rotations all happened seamlessly and most of them were very well organised. The project I was on was very well organised also, as we had a plan that we followed. After the rotations ended though, was when the coronavirus situation was getting a lot worse and so having work to do wasn't always a given.

We have a portal with hundreds of courses available to do, from anything between devops and unconscious bias. This helped a lot because if for some reason there wasn't a lot to do, you could always fill up your time with some online training. We also had classroom training, which is where I did my Mental Health First Aider course and CGI paid for me to do it.

I have to do a final year project at Loughborough, and it has to be a technical solution for a real-life company. Most students work with their placement companies, and CGI have said that I can do my project with them. I'd also love to go back to CGI after I graduate, and fingers crossed that happens.

As I was based in Solihull, there were very few placement students with me there (1 other) and I didn't work with them. However, the members I worked with on the account I was on were very sociable, and on my placement we had curry nights, a Christmas party, meals out and also lunches out for when a new member joined. It really made a difference whilst I was working there.

In Solihull it was quite pricey where I lived, however was walking distance to the office so I didn't mind too much and was a nice area to live in. I didn't really socialise with anyone bar the people I worked with on occasion after work, e.g meals out. However when I did it wasn't overly expensive.

Solihull has quite a few spots you can go to, for example many different restaurants, Pop World, Revs (which is where we had our Christmas party) etc. There's also the resorts world near the airport which has even more restaurants. However, I didn't really embrace the nightlife whilst I was living in Solihull.

We had a sports and social club that we could be a part of for £5/month. This was well worth spending the money on, as we got the chance to go to fun places for very discounted prices, and also have 'free' pizza lunches every fortnight. For example, I got to go to Ballie Ballerson in London and a couple of months later I saw Hamilton at the West End. We also had our Christmas lunch provided from this.