Commercial Management Placement Review

I had two placements throughout the year, one of which I really enjoyed and one where I did not enjoy as much as the previous placement. Overall I think that for a work placement I've had a lot of responsibility and achieved a lot which will provide me with a lot valuable experience both on my CV and when returning to university. However, I've certainly learned from this placement what I don't want to be doing when I graduate and felt at times that I wasn't stretched or challenged enough.

This varied between individuals. Some people treated me just like any other employee regardless of the fact I was on a placement and treated me with respect/as a friend at times. However, there were some people that seemed to think because I was a placement student that my opinions were not as valid as others. On the whole, the people I met were very supportive, encouraging and friendly.

I had two different experiences of management. One with a manager who pushed me very hard and was sometimes difficult to deal with- this was tough at first but definitely pushed me to get the best out of myself and the placement. My other experience was less challenging- I was given a lot of support and guidance but probably not stretched to the best of my ability.

Most of the time I was busy and had things to do but in one of my placements where it was more of an individualistic role I was sometimes bored and didn't have a lot to do that was intellectually stimulating. However, in my other placement, I was often very busy and had a lot of interesting things to do.

I had two experiences- one where I was given a huge amount of responsibility, effectively running a marketing programme for the dealers, and one where the actual work I was doing was quite important so had to be done well but I didn't get to see any decision making or anything that was made off the back of what I did.

I learnt a lot on my placement that will be invaluable for the rest of my life- learning how to conduct myself in a business environment, working with people, industry knowledge, computer skills etc. They will all be very helpful when I return to university and in my future career.

I felt that the environment was quite corporate and didn't really lend itself to 'fun' per se but it was professional and the atmosphere among my immediate colleagues was very positive.

The induction week/training were very well organised and very useful. The things I would have liked would have been a bit more input from HR throughout the year to check how we were getting on. It would also have been better if they were sure that there is enough work in a department before putting a placement student there. The 2 6 month placement nature of the year meant that there was quite a lot of uncertainty about the next placement that you would be going on which I personally didn't like. There didn't seem to have been much thought gone in to where people were placed (I could be wrong!).

We were given a lot of personal training and development with 4 training days throughout the year which were very useful.

I have been told that they will not be taking on graduates in the year that I will be looking for a graduate scheme (not confirmed.)

I developed a really good relationship with a lot of the placement students I worked with which was really good. We didn't go out much because we were all very busy with other friends/boyfriends/families.

I lived at home so very cheap! Socialising wasn't bad.

Leamington spa is very nice, coventry is not as good but has some good nights out.

Family fun day