Account Specialist Review

Facilitating the support for students with disabilities at university. Includes: -Managing the students' support (matching them with a support worker and maintaining contact to ensure proper support is being provided) -Managing the support workers (recruitment, payroll, administrative queries and complaint management) -Managing the overall administrative duties of an agency (reports, debt management, etc.)

Teamwork - the team relies heavily on each other, especially during busy periods Independence - everyone has a caseload that they personally manage in whatever way works best for you Motivation - everybody takes turns organising Sales Days to encourage the team to higher performance Work-Life balance - as the job is target-driven, I've learned how to switch off after the day is done Complaint handling - the role involves working with many different queries, including stakeholder complaints

Once we were sufficiently trained, then a lot of responsibility was given to the Placement Year students. We have our own caseload, and are given a lot of freedom to support them how we would like. Also, Placement students are given the opportunity to lead some meetings if we have an idea, we are treated as if we are one of the full-time members of the team.

We were given a buddy from the permanent team members at the beginning which made sure that our difficulties were listened to and acted upon. Regular one to ones with our manager also helped to get me settled in, and then allowed me to mention where I would like to stretch myself and where I needed further support.

It is a competition-driven environment, as are most target-based companies. However, it is a friendly competition, there is no sense of trying to undermine other team members to get ahead. Instead, there is a culture of lifting up the others in your team through the competition. The culture in the office is lively and friendly, and during the busy periods this has been invaluable.

I've enjoyed it very much. It has been hard, but that has allowed me to stretch myself and improve. I can see a vast difference between the person that started to who I am now, 11 months into the year. It has not gone perfectly all the way through, but I would not expect it to have done as everything is an adjustment. Especially in my first full-time role.

Yes

Expect to work hard to reach your targets, and expect to be pushed. However, if you do there is a lot that you can benefit from.