Pricing and Reporting Analyst Review

The year as a whole I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at Samsung, there has been extreme highs and so bad lows however the overall year has been great, mainly due to the other placement students whom I got on with extremely well and due to them operating in different departments I was able to get so see how the whole business functions, not just my team which for a company this large I found fascinating.

Luckily for my job I have been able to work with people all over the business so my network has grown significantly. have always felt like a valued member of the team even though my colleagues knew I wasn't a permanent employee and they were all very helpful when I first joined, some even giving me extra training as well as they help walked me through thing I wasn't sure about or things I made a mistake on.

For me, the first 4/5 months were quite rocky as my manager had gone on a prolonged sick leave just before I joined so I never really had a proper manager that could help me with my job, just a supervisor who checked how I was doing every so often. For those first few months I only had the knowledge from my predecessor and the handover notes he left me to see me through. However after this, around January I got assigned a new manager and even though they didn't know much about my job they were a lot more active in my development and took time to learn what I did in order to help me improve

How busy I was extremely varied, some days I was extremely busy to the point of having to eat lunch at my desk while working and some days i wouldn't have much work to do at all so I would listen to podcasts all day. Most days, however work is on the lighter side. Quite busy in the morning making sure all my mandatory tasks are completed then a bit more laid back during the afternoon dealing with requests or even if I have time, side projects for the business.

Due to the nature of the position I held, I had quite a large amount of responsibility given to me, with many other employees in the business dependent on me to get my work done to allow them to even begin their work. As well as the opportunity to liaise with senior employees such as the CFO and CEO of the business and present at an international conference which I didn't expect when I first joined the company

I have been able to develop quite a few relevant skills during my time at Samsung for my final year such as the ability to manage relationships and responsibilities. I have been able to develop relationships and have become close friends with the other placement students and will definitely keep in touch after the placement is over, this should help me develop relationships with other third year students but also the lecturers tutors and potential employers. I have also improved my presentation skills and for me the most important being time management as I had never previously been good at managing my time but I have had to manage my time more efficiently as I have had to prioritize certain tasks due to time constraints and importance levels such as the ability to meet certain deadlines for my reports. This will help me help meet my deadlines during final year and try to keep on top of my work rather than let it all build up throughout the year. I have also been able to manage the time for my personal life as well including getting into a better sleeping pattern as well as balancing a social life and personal growth. I am sure the IT Skills I have developed will also help me work more efficiently in the data analysis modules I have taken for final year as my ability to interpret data and produce information based on given data has certainly improved.

This is dependent of which department you go to, the Marketing Department is always lively with lots of chatter whereas the legal offices can be very quite at times, I believe this just might be down to the type of work they do as marketing requires collaborations and and Legal is more solo. However the office as a whole is very friendly, people will take regular breaks and chat to their friends, and there are loads of events that happen often such as the Christmas Markets and the Space Selfie Launch.

The Placement Program was very well structured, The first week we got a lot of training about how the company as a whole operates as well as the history of Samsung and how the office is influenced by the Korean culture. As well as spaced out sessions throughout the year for the placement students to help with things such as creating a development program as well as a presentations skills workshop, all of which will help contribute to helping in my final year of Uni

As previously mentioned, the company and HR team setup numerous sessions specifically dedicated to enhance our personal developments such as creating a development program as well as a presentations skills workshop, all of which will help contribute to helping in my final year of Uni. My team as well took time out of their work to help me develop as well, whether that was a specific task I was struggling with or showing me a nice trick to become more efficient with my time.

The company has a good grad scheme which is very much integrated with the placement scheme, and to apply it is the same as the placement scheme however, being a placement doesn't guarantee a future grad role after Uni, if you do decide to reapply for a grad role they will fast track you so you won't have to sit an assessment center or do an online test however you will still have to have an interview for the specific role you chose to take

The total number of Grads and Placements was around 40 so there were a lot of people of a similar age to get along with. Due to those who moved out to live closer to work, it became easy to organize various nights out and parties especially towards the beginning when everyone was only starting to get to know each other. Not only our own nights out but events held by the company like the Christmas Party were useful to socialize as well.

Surrey can be quite expensive, Luckily for me I stayed at home so I didn't have to pay rent but from what I know from the other Grads and placements, the cost of living wasn't by any means cheap. The same goes for socializing, whenever we would go on a night out we would usually have to travel closer to London such as Clapham and due to that, the taxis home also cost quite a bit and of course the drinks cost quite a bit as well.

In Chertsey specifically, there isn't much nightlife at all however there is some good transport links into and around London so It is simple enough to get to a decent nightclub or nice bar. But also there is a lot of other activities to do as well such as a bowling alley and laser tag in Woking which we did at the beginning of our placement to socialize a bit more and form some better relationships.

There was only 1 main opportunity for us which was mainly due to the Covid Pandemic which was a fundraising event that we did. We decided to run the length of a marathon within a week each which totaled at over 513KM. We did this for a Charity called Oakleaf to raise awareness for mental health as we all did this activity during mental health week. We were able to raise over £2000 which was a huge success