Finance Coordinator Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement year at Newcastle Building Society even under the current COVID-19 circumstances which meant I was required to work remotely from home. I feel this has been a great experience and the skills I have developed will especially be beneficial when returning to university for my final year. Although the structure of my placement was made impossible to follow, I am still extremely happy with what I have got out of this year in the industry.

I felt extremely valued by my colleagues, not only in my team, but in the whole society as I had multiple opportunities to work with different departments and complete projects with the rest of the Early Talent Cohort. I felt very comfortable in the office making friends that I could socialise with both inside and outside of work. I attended my teams social events and Christmas party and felt that overall I was treated no differently to a permanent member of staff.

My line manager has been great, she has supported me as much as possible over the past year without being too intense. I have followed a training plan to ensure I was competent in all areas of my role. I have also had monthly check-in's to discussing my performance and any issues. I am also very happy with the guidance I have received from the management team when moving to working from home and paperless.

Most days my workload was very manageable as we have a checklist whereby tasks must be completed by a specific time therefore I always knew what I needed to be doing and when. At the end of the month / year I was much busier as we had extra work to complete and reports to provide the client with. I also had an Early Talent project on-going which often meant I had to attend meetings in our other office.

I was given the exact same responsibility as every other member on my team. I was treated like a new starter a quickly settled in as a valued team member.

I feel my skills and confidence have developed exponentially and I know that from my placement portfolio, I have excelled in areas such as decision making, communication, and problem solving. I am thankful for the training and experience as I believe this will make me a more employable graduate, I have also proved that I can quickly deal with change as we changed all of our procedures to paperless to ensure we could work from home within 1 week.

The general atmosphere in the office was great, it wasn't too loud but it was never silent. There was always opportunities to talk and joke with the people on my department. We often had a snack table and at Christmas our team leaders got us all an advent calendar each. We also did secret Santa which everyone got involved in and we hosted multiple charity days including a Macmillan Coffee morning. My team of management all had a good sense of humour therefore we always felt comfortable.

My placement was very well organised from start to finish. Applying for the placement was very easy, at the assessment day, everyone was made to feel comfortable and relaxed. The communication was excellent right through the recruitment process. When I officially started my placement I was given my training plan and my team leader explained how the year would go and if there was anything in particular that I wanted to get out of it so she could assist me in anyway possible. Right up until finishing I have always been well informed about my role and I am thankful that my position was not furloughed like some other undergraduates.

As an undergraduate, I was automatically enrolled into the Early Talent scheme which meant I spent a lot of time working on projects, challenges, training and team building events with the other undergraduates, graduates and apprentices. This meant we could form our own little circle and connect on social media to plan getting together outside of the office. After one social event organised by the Society at Lane 7 we all felt comfortable enough to meet up outside of the office and spend time together building friendships.

My office was right in the city centre of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, this meant it was extremely close to shops, restaurants and the nightlife. Additionally, being home to two universities the nightlife is extremely good and there is something for everyone whether you just want a nice cocktail by the quayside or stay out dancing all night. This also means that the areas is always very busy however the office is out the way enough that you don't get too much traffic of people heading out (or home) when arriving/leaving work.

As standard, all employees who work for Newcastle Building Society are given 2 volunteering days within work time. Within my first month of working for the Society I volunteered at St Oswald's Hospice sorting donations to distribute to the high street charity shops and the homeless. The society also has a Staff Association which you can pay into and benefit from discounted theatre, days out and activity tickets outside of work. Additionally, you are entered into a cash prize draw each month.