Graduate Software Product Analyst Review

There was definitely a lot to take in at first (especially compared to my last office job) but after a couple of months I had gotten up to speed and that was when things became more enjoyable. There were a lot of acronyms to pick up, but once you've learnt them you can get to grips with everything else. I was fortunate enough to be given scope to work on several different on-going projects, as well as help out with side jobs throughout the year, and it was the diversity of work that kept things interesting.

The office was open plan and everyone was very friendly, particularly so within each team of 10-15 people. Every summer there is an office 'day out' too (in addition to your annual leave quota) and that's a great chance to relax with everyone in the [hopefully] good weather. A good crowd of people tend to go to the pub after work on Fridays so that's also a nice way to meet people you wouldn't otherwise work with on a day-to-day basis.

My manager was fantastic, always very organised and finding new tasks for me to help out with or develop by myself. I always felt I could approach her to ask questions about further career and training opportunities, and the other team members also gave helpful feedback too.

There were a couple of periods early on (the first 3 months) where I would occasionally finish what I had been assigned and have to ask for other things to do, but that would occur in any job as part of the learning curve. Having eventually reached a stage where I knew the fundamentals of the job, I always had things to do thereafter, sometimes too much to do! On those occasions my manager was able to postpone the less important issues so I could focus on the more urgent ones.

In the second half of my placement I definitely got more responsibility since I had proven I was capable of doing the work well, and because it really did take that long to get to grips with it. Since my role was a position created especially for me within the first month or two of being hired, I provided support for most of this time, but got the opportunity to do some of the main development work towards the end, which was the most interesting part by far.

The training here was excellent, especially since I also got a certificate in basic project management. There is a lot of focus on maintaining up-to-date skills and knowledge, including monthly lunch time learning sessions for general clinical knowledge. The underlying knowledge of business practices I picked up on a day to day basis will be invaluable in the future.

Obviously you have to work hard and concentrate, but I could always have a quick chat with the people around me if they weren't in meetings, and since the office was open plan it did stop anything feeling "oppressive" etc. Definitely easy-going rather than strict.

I was a little disappointed with the initial induction programme, which was spread out over weeks due to availability of staff. There also seemed to be relatively little "structure" given to the placement itself, but that honestly might be a good thing - it gives you a sense of how real business works rather than whatever facade might have been constructed for the internship otherwise. Nothing to complain about really.

I got 3-4 training sessions in the second half of the placement, one of which resulted in an APM certificate in Project Management, in addition to on-going domain training. There was also a dedicated software tool to cover the domain information so you can learn in your own time, and the provision of web-based learning for anything from process updates to information security.

There are over 400,000 employees in nearly 200 countries, with jobs in 4 different major sectors, so prospects couldn't be much better.

I'm in less of a position to comment here because I had a 2 hr commute to and from the site - not the case for everyone else. Still, definitely got along well with the others, and there was a movie night for the office every few weeks too. There are only a few graduates taken on each year though (for this office, not the entire organisation), so there isn't a large group to mingle in.

Oxford is quite expensive to live in, so whilst there are plenty of places to go, you might need to be more careful than you might otherwise be elsewhere in the UK.

Plenty of pubs to choose from, a selection of clubs which cater to most tastes, although weekend nights are expensive. Weeknights are cheaper because they all tend to be student nights.

Again, in less of a position to comment here because of my long commute, but Oxford has plenty of opportunities for sports and leisure, you just have to look!