Regulatory Compliance Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement. The company was very welcoming and provided a stress-free and enjoyable environment in which to develop skills while providing value to the company. The work I was involved in was interesting, varied, and engaging and I was quickly given responsibility to work on my own on projects. This, combined with the freedom and trust I was given, lead to me meeting people from many parts of the business which multiplied my learning through the exposure this provided.

I felt highly valued by my team and felt quickly involved on an equal footing in their work. I did not feel that the work I was doing was simply small admin tasks or pet projects. My opinions and ideas were valued and my contributions felt like they delivered greatly to the overall production of the team. I also felt valued by the greater department and by senior leadership, who were highly enthusiastic about Early Careers' potential for the company.

I was supported constantly by my manager. If there was ever anything I was unsure about I could quickly turn to my manager or someone else from the team who would happily answer my questions. Throughout my first few months there was plenty of time spent explaining concepts to me and the work I was given was set out to be appropriate to my current understanding and allow me to develop to more complex projects.

There was always more work to do than there was time to do it. However not only is this likely quite common in all business, it also gave me confidence that the team valued me as they gave me so much work to do! There was never a time spent thumb twiddling, and I would often work extra hours or take a shorter lunch. This was by choice though; there was never any stress or pressure added by my manager or the team to push myself to deliver something on time, in fact it was actively discouraged!

I was given a high amount of responsibility and autonomy to complete my tasks during my placement. There were large projects that I was given to directly handle and deliver, sometimes coming from department leads or even directors. There were time-sensitive projects where I was responsible for large parts of the required deliverables and I would often be independently scheduling meetings with other areas of the company on behalf of my team and department. I would also be responsible for communicating with external parties and act as a first point of contact for them.

The skills I developed opened my eyes to a new world of processes, practices, and terminologies that have been invaluable in developing my career. I am able to use the things I learned to demonstrate that I have an understand of industry far beyond what I would have had I completed university without an industrial placement. I have noticed that using some of the buzzwords I learned during my placement has pleasantly surprised interviewers at companies I have applied to since!

The office space itself was very clean and beautiful, with new and well-kept furniture and appliances. It was very bright and spacious and fostered a good working mindset, with areas designed for all kinds of meetings and work activities. The people working in the office were all lovely and outgoing, happy to have friendly conversation and help out with any queries. Everyone was kind to each other and there was a strong team spirit. You very quickly felt like you had been there and known everyone for a long time.

The Graduate Scheme itself is highly appealing both in terms of benefits/salary, and also the uniqueness of the interesting work there is to get involved in. It seems like a great scheme and definitely one I would have chosen given the option, however due to the current pandemic we find ourselves in I think the actual prospects themselves are quite low at the moment, as appealing as they may be. If the industry regains its stability, the employment prospects would be highly appealing.

There was a good social scene amongst the other members of Early Careers, however I mostly remained with the students from my department. There were social activities for the entire cohort which encouraged more mixing. At lunch, there was always a large table in the canteen that would definitely be filled with people from within Early Careers. There were events organised independently by students there were often open to everyone in Early Careers and if you live with people also on placement you will likely interact with more people through mutual connections.

The cost of living was definitely cheap compared to London and about the same as Southampton. There were plenty of options in terms of locations to live and hence there was some level of flexibility depending on how much you wanted to spend. However unless you lived in the same town as the office you would have to factor in the cost of transport, be it train, car, or bus. This was also a cost to consider when taking part in a social event, but the venues themselves (e.g. restaurants) were no more or less costly than they would be elsewhere.

Near the office the nightlife is effectively non-existent (there is one or two small pubs and a cinema). However most people would live in the nearby cities (Southampton or Portsmouth) where there is ample nightlife. This does make organising social events of this nature difficult as people will often be split as to where the best location is, and also have to organise transport to and from the event. This did make a good turnout somewhat difficult to ensure.

There was lots of opportunities to get involved in things outside of work. The Early Careers team would organise charity events throughout the year. They were also organised occasional social events. There were several sports clubs ran by other employees in the company, such as tennis, and even a Go-Karting tournament to be involved in. With other Early Careers students in my team I frequently went rock climbing together, both after work and on weekends.