HR Assistant Review

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with Panasonic and would recommend a placement with the company to anyone. You're given a huge amount of responsibility and trust and your job is your own, if you weren't employed as an industrial placement student the company would have to employ someone full time to take over your position! I have been given projects which are my own and I am trusted to carry out and complete but there’s always support there from line managers and colleagues that I know I can use should I need it.

I feel extremely valued by my colleagues both in my team and the wider department. It’s essential that we work as a team to ensure things get done and trust each other to get on with our part of the process or project. With regards to colleagues throughout the business I have also felt like a valued member of the Panasonic group, especially by line managers when assisting with the recruitment of their new students. I have received great feedback from some of my colleagues which has been really encouraging.

My manager and team alike are always there to give me support and guidance in any area I need. I feel i can go to them with any issue or situation weather it be of a personal or a professional nature. The reason i have done a slightly lower amount of stars is because i don’t feel I am given too much guidance or handheld. I know my team are always there to support me but i am trusted and given the responsibility to get on with my job and not "watched over" or "monitored". As soon as I am unsure of anything or have a question i go straight to my team who are always happy to help!

I can honestly say I've not had a single day at Panasonic where I have been bored and not had anything to do! There is always work to be done around the department and if one of the team feels they have too much to do we well all help each other out. Some times of the year have been busier than others for example when I was holding assessment centers and telephone interviews while recruiting the new set of students. During these times my team really helped to keep my workload at a manageable level by picking up some of my daily activities so I have never felt I have too much work to deal with!

I've been given a huge amount of responsibility on my placement, much more than i ever could of imagined or hoped for! I really wanted to have good level of responsibility to gain as much experience as possible and Panasonic have really enabled me to do this. Particularly with regards to recruiting the new set of students, from start to finish this has been my project and my responsibility, from choosing which careers fairs we should attend to holding interviews and notifying successful candidates! I’ve also been given lots of responsibility with access to confidential information and being trusted to handle difficult situations with care. I've also been trusted to give company inductions to new starters to give them more information about the company today and our history.

I've developed and gained so many skills on my placement year that will definitely be "skills for life". We're lucky enough at Panasonic that we can book ourselves onto as many training courses as we'd like and I've definitely taken full advantage of that! I’ve attended courses from "powerful presentations" to "intermediate excel". All of the courses I have taken i know will help me out when i go back to university to complete my final year and when searching for a job once I have graduated. I feel i have developed both personally and professionally on my placement year and I've really grown up! I know all of the exposure I've had to the "real working world" will be extremely beneficially in the future - Its been an invaluable experience.

The atmosphere in the office is great, everyone gets on really well and we've even started a "bake off" within the department where someone brings different brings in cakes they have made every week and we score them! If someones having a bad day we can always count on the rest of the team to pick them up.

The placement year was set up well with a clear training schedule set for the first month in the company to ensure all students were getting on well in their new role. Before we all started in our new roles we had a student orientation where we all met for the first time at Panasonic and got to meet her teams again, we then went out with the previous students to get to know them a bit better!

There is the opportunity for you to go on a huge amount of training with Panasonic and it’s really up to you as in individual if you choose to make the most of this! All students have a handover period and an induction period with the previous student so they are clued up on how everything works before the previous student leaves. I wouldn't say that student’s development is strictly monitored but it is what you make of it, there’s the opportunity there to develop yourself a huge amount should you choose to take it.

I'd love the opportunity to return to Panasonic in the future, there are varying levels of employment prospects with Panasonic depending on the department you are interested in. As I've worked in the HR department which is relatively small the reality of me being able to return in the near future is quite unlikely but within other areas such as marketing and sales there are a lot more opportunities available.

I'd say there was a good work life balance, we have intercompany socials 4/5 times a year with interns from a number of companies across business parks in Reading and Bracknell and numbers have been around 250 students! All 17 students this year have got on really well and we regularly go for meals and night out. As students we’ve started a little kitty for people’s presents and give everyone a birthday present when there birthday comes and generally go on a night out! We all sit together at lunch and catch up what’s been going on with everyone which is nice too! With regards to socalising with colleagues a number of students attended the consumer kick off meeting which was a brilliant event and opportunity to socalise with people across the business. We go for a Christmas departmental meal and my teams sometimes go for lunch or dinner at a local pub.

I personally lived at home so can't comment on the price of living in the area, but in terms of going out its not bad at all. From where the students live its £7/8 to get a taxi into town and entry is generally £5 with drinks at regular student prices during the week and around £4 on the weekend.

I think the nightlife in Reading is quite good, there are a couple of clubs that are open during the week and on the weekends. We're regular visiros at Lola Lo, which has become our favourite because it has a dressing up room!

I think you can get involved in as many activities outside of work as you'd like to. If you decide to arrange an event weather it be with your collegues or just students chances are people would come along!