End User Technology Review

My placement year experience exceeded my expectations by far I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to involved in the Mars culture. I gained a significant amount from my internship being involved in the bigger picture, develop new skills, experiences and learn hands on through doing. The placement year gave me real responsibility and freedom that allowed me to see the reality of working life within a busy corporate environment.

From day one, I had the full support of my line manager; team and fellow associates all who have helped me learn and progress through the year. I felt a valued member of my team due to the organisational culture being open, friendly and supportive.

My line manager and senior colleagues provided guidance and help along my placement. They focused firmly on my own personal development and highlighted areas for improvement and ways I could do things differently next time. This support and guidance has helped me develop my abilities to grow as an individual and continue to seek and listen to feedback as part of my lifelong learning journey.

At first I was given time to adjust to the working environment and get a feel for the culture and learn through others how large IT projects are implemented. As my placement went on, I was given the responsibilities of planning, monitoring and controlling two global projects of different sizes to ensure they ran smoothly, liaising with other teams and the wider business community to help assist the reduction of IT costs. Each day was packed full of activities but with the times of less workload I seeked alternative ways to keep busy and help the wider community, raising visibility of on day site events and activities examples included Halloween, Get Festive, All Associates Day and the Summer BBQ.

I was provided with projects, activities and tasks throughout my placement that had real responsibility. This placement is for people looking for good challenge, and will be expected to deliver critical pieces of work that can impact the business globally. You will come away reaping the benefits of increased confidence, purpose and self-accomplishment. There is always a helping hand from your fellow colleagues if you feel there is too much responsibility where you will be able to reprioritise workloads and strike the correct balance.

Whilst on my placement I was fortunate enough to attend a variety of internal training sessions that helped me learn and grow both as individual and as a member of a high performing team. With the approval from your team you will be able to enhance your own growth and improve upon your development areas in the appropriate training opportunities. For myself I was able to enhance my networking, time management and leadership skills, which has assisted in my degree studies and future employability as I come away from the internship with a decided career path in IT along with set goals and objectives.

The office is an exciting and fast paced environment that has a friendly and supportive working atmosphere. The office consists of an open planned environment implemented across the organisation. I really enjoyed the social site day activities that happened throughout the year this outlined the importance of a sensible work life balance that Mars highlights with the encouragement to get involved in the site day activities examples included Halloween, Get Festive and Great Connections Week.

The placement was very well organised which had an excellent one week induction process that made you feel very welcomed within those first few nerve-racking days of starting which led to the smooth transition into the role. You will have two main assessment points that include a Mid-Year and End- Year review process. This is something not to be afraid of but a very exciting and worthwhile opportunity! It enables you to develop your own interview techniques and presentation skills in a safe environment and receive truthful and honest feedback from the talent panel that helps in terms of practice for future graduate job interviews. The best part about the set up of the placement programme is that you can input into how to make the placement experience better for new Industrial Placement Students based from your own feedback.

Mars truly invest a lot of time and effort into their Industrial Placement Students that I did not expect especially in such a busy corporate environment. From regular personal development meeting points with my line manager to being able to attend internal and external training opportunities I was able to gain qualifications in ITIL V3 and Microsoft SharePoint.

Unfortunately even with an excellent Placement Programme Mars offers there is no current Graduate Scheme in place within the segment of Information Services. However that being the case you leave knowing your strengths and areas for improvement that puts you in good position for applying for other Graduate IT programmes across other multinational companies.

During my placement year there was a larger intake of students compared to previous years, this combined with the prior organisation of student houses through the use of a Facebook social media group that I created resulted in an amazing social life! There was never a dull evening or weekend from catch up meals and drinks in Windsor to eventful weekends in London you all share the Mars experience together and create memories and friends for life.

As a Northern coming down the South of England for my placement year living and social costs were much higher! Even when earning money expect if you want to make the most of your year placement year and look back with happy fond memories you will need to adapt in paying higher costs for accommodation, bills and those fun nights out in Windsor & London.

Slough nightlife does not go further than a couple of drinks in the local pub and a cinema trip that combined with the student favourite Nando’s restaurant and the odd takeaway. I would recommend whilst on placement for you to make the most of living near the train station and utilise the extensive transport links that are available to you. I would visit the beautiful scenery for walks nearby Windsor Castle during the day and by night visit bars such as Liquid, Mantra and Vanilla (5 minute train journey from Slough). If your feeling more adventurous there is a 15-minute fast train to London Paddington from Slough where you can see famous clubs of London to name a few I visited KOKO, Fire, Heaven and Fabric.

It is up to you to make the most of your time on placement, Mars regularly have work social activities ranging from team meals out to eventful team day and site events. I would recommend attending the events and enjoy the experience! Search for things you are interested in doing from go-karting to summer sport day events. There are many societies you can join and if share an interest in something speak up and organise it as an event it can be work or non-work related.