Customer Services Technician Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement at ProspectSoft Ltd. My role was to provide first line IT support, and I enjoyed providing technical related support as well as providing answers to more general enquiries. Throughout the placement I have developed my technical and soft skills such as problem solving and database knowledge and have also learnt new skills. As well as the experience, the people there are all lovely and there are a lot of social events. It has been a great year.

From the start of the placement I felt valued by my colleagues. They were very supportive and happily answered the endless amount of questions during my first few months. They also gave me lots of encouragement when dealing with tougher issues and were very appreciative when I volunteered for work. My colleagues in support made me feel especially valued, as they gave me good feedback as well as guidance and areas I needed to work on.

There was plenty of support/guidance from my line manager. They checked up on how I was doing at the start of the placement, as well as when on Furlough during the COVID lock-down. I felt like I could ask them for help and guidance whenever, as well as my other colleagues on the support team. We also did daily support team meetings during lock-down, so we could raise any sort of issues or problems we might have.

On the whole, most days were pretty busy. There were only a couple of days where I did not have much to do. Even then, my line manager would be able to find me something, such as improving support documentation. Most days I was busy though responding to calls, emails etc, logging tickets and solving technical issues. I enjoyed being busy, although sometimes this got very busy and got a little bit stressful. However, I imagine you are bound to have days like that for most jobs, and it helped me develop my organisation skills and manage my workload better.

After the first month of training, we were given a lot of responsibility. Taking calls, responding to emails, and getting remotely connected to customer’s PCs and servers to investigate and fix issues involved a lot of responsibility. I was also able to do consultancy work for customers such as completing database moves, which could be fiddly and if done wrong cause lots of issues. Overall, I did not feel restricted when working, but at the same time I would usually pass more complex issues to my colleagues in second line support.

The placement not only improved my technical skills, but it also improved my organisation, problem solving and communication skills greatly. Also working in a professional environment gives you an understanding of how companies operate, especially in a small-medium sized company like ProspectSoft, where you have talked to everyone in the company and know their roles. I am sure the technical experience gained will aid me in my final year of Uni, as well as further jobs.

The general atmosphere was friendly and talkative, but not too noisy. There was a lot of banter at the office, which made the placement more enjoyable. Also, during COVID lock-down, we had daily meetings for each department, with time to chat about anything which was nice when working remotely. The office is also open plan for the most part, which made it feel very easy to go and talk to someone in another department if you had some queries.

It was very well organised. All the placements did training together at the start, and then we gradually went off into department training.

There was plenty of support from colleagues, and I had a couple of meetings with my line manager to see how I could improve.

Very appealing. It is a great place to work, with lots of support and friendly people.

There were a lot of social events. There were 13 other placements in various roles, which is nice as there are other students starting the job at the same time, so you are all in the same boat. Every month the different departments have a meal out together, for me it was going down to the local Indian for a curry. There are also “Beer Fridays” at the end of the working week, where everyone can help themselves to a beer or soft drink and some snacks, and there is usually a quiz which is fun. The company also has a Christmas party, and there are various other social activities such as going to the Pub and climbing sessions.

Not ridiculous but a bit expensive. I lived in Oxford during my placement, which is a fairly expensive place to live (although not as bad as London). The average price of a pint is one of the highest in the UK (just under £4), eating out is not especially cheap either. However, Oxford is a beautiful place to live and has a great range of authentic Pubs, nice places to eat and some good clubs. The rent me and my housemates (also placements) paid was reasonable.

Nightlife was pretty good. Oxford has to be one of the best cities to go for its vast range of Pubs. I would personally recommend the Turf Tavern. There are also some great cocktail places such as Duke of Cambridge and also alternative nights out like Junkyard Golf. There are some good clubs, although they are not the cheapest. The beautiful old buildings and churches are great scenery when going for a night out, although it is very easy to get lost after a few drinks.

Plenty of opportunities. There are two Uni’s in Oxford, so there are plenty of societies you can join. I joined the Oxford Brookes Jazz Band and the Uni’s Christian Union.