Business Operations Placement Student Review

Raising purchase orders for goods required by the team. Shipping and receiving goods. Creating files for documentation. Helping complete audits and general admin. Creating data models to review projects progress (budgets and forecasting) as well as cost proposals. Managing inventory and stock levels.

Learned & developed skills on excel, SAP Ariba, Inxpress shipping, teamwork project management. Developed time management & communication skills. Gained confidence in presenting and running online meetings. I also learned to work with teams in other countries which massively improved organisation and teamwork skills.

I was given lots of responsibility to create my own models which are now in use day-to-day. Some are used to create cost proposals for projects which are critical and must be accurate. I also took over the administrator role when the previous employee left the company, this meant I had increased responsibility and had to juggle 2 roles.

I experienced a lack of support and guidance during placement. I had a very short handover period with the previous student and no handover for the administrator role. I had no direct representative to help me with problems internally and was often told to refer to others outside the team. I received the basics of formal induction training and the rest was on the job.

Culture was good, everyone was very friendly and worked together well. There was however a big divide between management level and employees which caused friction at times. Feels as though there could have been more perks and benefits for employees who were always expected to pick up the slack.

I enjoyed it to a fair extent. Some areas of the role I found rewarding and interesting such as the finance and analysis of projects. The admin and documentation was not an area I am interested in and was thrust onto me with no forewarning. It varied a lot and allowed me to try lots of different functions which was a positive.

Yes

Do research on the company and plan for the online assessment centre to be able to best show off your qualities and abilities. Get stuck in to all opportunities and be prepared to learn & network with everyone. Ask lots of questions when you’re stuck and build good relationships with your team.