Administrative Assistant Review

My role officially sounds very administrative but this was not the case in reality. My role was as a student Economist so I still very much worked on economics related tasks to do with legal migration routes such as visa demand changes, cost benefit analysis of visa fees changes, impact assessments on policy changes and even some submission comments to minister where I would just write a quick summary breaking down what a particular piece of analysis means in non technical terms to a political minister to then absorb.

I have particularly improved my public speaking skills as the role had a strong emphasis on cooperation with not only team members but also policy teams who are not themselves Economists and so do not understand technical language to the same degree and so the role involved a lot of presenting information to others in formal meetings. I have also heavily improved my analytical skills on Excel, for any future placement students - INDEXMATCH is great to know!

I was given a large amount of responsibility during my placement. Initially, I thought that given that I was a student I wouldn't be assigned highly important work in case I ruined it. However, I was treated just like any other full time employee and was given my own projects to work on just like everyone else in the term irrespective of work experience. One of my projects is actually something the team intends to use for all future impact assessments and it was only me working on the project

I had a tremendous amount of support during my placement, I even had monthly development meetings with my manager who would run through feedback for me and my work for that month as well as any upcoming developmental opportunities for me to learn the skills required to be a economist. I would also frequently receive wider unit emails for learning opportunities as well as support groups for mental health and so on. The work office itself is also very inclusive and diverse

The company culture was very harmonious in the sense that everyone was always aware what the overarching goals of the department were and how each of us as an individual can all collectively work towards achieving those goals. But in no means did this mean that anyone was overstretched in their work capabilities or felt unwarranted pressure to reach certain objectives in an unreasonable time frame. The culture is also very social as it is encouraged overall for us all to get along well together not only as colleagues but as outside friends

I enjoyed my placement wholeheartedly and wish it was longer. It was an excellent opportunity for me to see what it is really like to be an economist and to see how the work we do especially in the Civil Service can actually affect the lives of those both within the UK and outside of the UK. It is an invaluable experience that I would encourage all of those thinking about doing it to most definitely do so.

Yes

The advice that I would give is to make the most of the opportunities that become available to you as you may feel as though 12 months is a long time but once u get down into your work projects you find that the months go by fast and you may miss some opportunities that are available to you. Also helping out outside of your normal responsibilities can yield rewards which was a nice surprise!