Financial Solutions Administrator Review

Day to day responsibilities included looking at emails coming in from customers, putting emails into my own queue, prioritising which emails needed a response due to the 72 hour turnaround, managing my own queue to deal with customer queries. Customer queries include terminating contracts early, finding missing invoices and sending out copies if necessary, explanation of customers payments, managing customers accounts, finding payment sent in from customers for various things (settlements, copy invoice fees, rebate of rental payments etc...) and consulting with other departments to match up these payments.

The culture at Volvo Financial Services is very teamwork based. I was out into a team of around 10 people, and it was expected that I was in regular contact with them and offered help to whoever, whenever I could. In that sense my team working skills were developed greatly. Constant email communication with customers meant that my written communication skills were greatly enhanced, as well as verbal communication by being in team meetings every morning, Lastly, being in charge of my own work every day meant I had to hold myself accountable for how much work I was doing, meaning my organisation skills were enhanced greatly.

I was largely left to prioritise my own work and it was expected that if I needed help I would be able to reach out. In this way I felt very independent, which gave me a great feeling of responsibility. In terms of responsibility on projects, I wasn't given any specific projects on my placement, which I understand was hard working from home, however it did make me feel like some responsibility wasn't given to me as I wasn't in charge of any projects.

I received a lot of help and guidance during my placement as the work I was doing was quite technical and there were specific processes and controls in place that I had to follow and I of course had to be taught these. This meant I was in constant communication with my mentor and would always get help whenever I asked. I felt very supported by my managers too, and she would go out of her way to make sure I felt supported.

Volvo places great emphasis on ensuring employees feel part of a team and there is a sense of 'togetherness.' Whilst this was difficult to see first hand as my placement was largely from home, Volvo went out of their way to make sure this was felt even at home. They ran stay connected activities to try and keep the culture of 'togetherness' and it was very effective as I got to know people from different departments without meeting them.

I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know my team members and stepping into the corporate world. I enjoyed getting to know what a corporate job feels like, and learning about a new industry that I had no prior knowledge about. It is hard for me to know what a 'normal' placement at Volvo would feel like, and I think if I was in the office I would have enjoyed it more, however this wasn't possible.

Yes

Honesty! In my interview for my position, I did prior research about Volvo's principles and goals and this certainly helped as I was able to ensure Volvo was a good fit for me. However, through the hiring process if there was a question or situation in which I wasn't sure I would simply ask, and this was extremely helpful as it helped me get a further sense of the company culture. Trying to blag through an interview, regardless of whether you have done previous research or not won't look good, so just be honest!