Industrial Placement Student Review

I had a great time with my role, and was in a very good environment that allowed me to grow and learn within a great team, whilst being challenged, so for me it has been my best job ever (so far).

I've been part of two teams and both have supported me and included me throughout the process, I feel I have been valued and have played pivitol roles in moving our business forward.

On starting the placement I was given a mentor. This enabled me to talk work and also about myself. This was probably the most important part for me of my placement year. Without a mentor I would have found the year harder.

I had a great balance of work, and very rarely felt too busy. There were occasions of course when there were the extra hours needed to be put in. I felt on the whole my days were balanced very well.

I was given the space and freedom to have the autonomy to talk with who I wanted, and this gave me many opportunities to influence and guide some decisions. Obviously I was not running the show, but I felt a great deal of responsibility & a level of accountabilitiy that comes with that. To this extent I felt like a normal member of our team and no special sanctions were given to me just because I was a placement student.

I've had some serious learnings over the last year and this will put me in a great position for transitioning back into the working world once I complete uni. I hope I bring some of the responsibility & structure I have used in my working year back to uni.

Whilst it was not on the whole a party, the atmosphere in the office was of one of great profesionalism that allowed me to learn from some great people. It was a supportive environment that also allowed me to challenge ideas and myself!

I feel the only part of the year that let the placement down was the lack of a "scheme" we had development days but only one of these was really a development day. There are plenty of behaviours the organisation looks for in Partners/Employees and these days could have been used to work on this rather than what felt like networking days - which in fact were not needed as we all lived together.

A hell of a lot has been done to develop me this year and I feel very grateful for these opportunities presented to myself. However you do have to take a lot of personal responsibility to push yourself towards these, nothing gets given without asking.

I feel I am in a great position for the future with the organisation on a personal level. It would have been smart to have the placement year set up as a feeder into a graduate scheme as afterall a year long placement should show how good a candidate you are rather than an assessment centre. We have either expressed the desired skills behaviours this year or we haven't this could save time and money and securing some good talent for the future. Or talking to the individual placement students department about managing talent...?

Yes we had a smashing year, as well as weekly meals all together we had a lot of partying but also some very great events such as sailing, and horse racing both are a must.

As expected for the South East! Able to live better than I was as a student but still had to be careful.

Local nightlife was Reading, but easy to get into London if wanted. We found we could go out when we wanted!

Some great opportunities if you wanted to get involved