IT Supply Chain Functional Analyst Review

An extremely challenging role, which tested my knowledge and encouraged me to learn new skills and increase my confidence. An exciting company to work for and you are considered one of the team and not just a "student". Everybody made you feel welcome

My team were extremely supportive through my professional development and personal support. The whole department were very welcoming and friendly, making it easier to fit in.

I had many manager changes throughout my year placment as the department had a re-organisation meaning that my managers were quite erratic. However, I did learn to deal with many different mananger styles and this was great experience.

Some days were completeley manic and others could be slow but I found that it was easy to fill the slow days with work that had been ignored when it was extremely busy. It was the nature of the role.

I was expected to be a fully integrated team member and this included covering support for the whole team when out or I would be given the responsibility in a go live of a project to support any issues that came in.

The role was very specific toward the supply chain but the analytical, customer, professional and personal skills that I developed over the year helped me to form a career idea and develop skills to make me a more professional worker rather than just a student. If I had not done a placement, I feel I would have lacked many skills that give a candidate the confidence to sell themselves in a job role.

It was a lively and cheerful atmosphere that worked hard and had fun at the same time.

Overall I was very happy with how the work placement was set up but there were a few issues that were sorted with time. Originally, I did not have any objectives and I found this hard to motivate myself. Once this was picked up, I was given a goal and I found I enjyed work a lot more.

I hold a lot of key knowledge about teh supply chain systems that I have had to train other people to learn now I have left that role. A lot of effort was put into training me up in the systems but no official training courses were needed for me. Others who did a placement did get the offer of courses though.

I am currently working at PepsiCo in a different role.

We all got on well but we all came from quite far away so it was difficult to plan social events outside of work. But we managed a few events and lunch was always a good excuse to stop for a chat!

I lived at home with my parents and travelled in. It cost a fair bit in petrol but other than that costs were average.

I lived with my parents in a different area, so didnt get to experience the night life in Reading much!

I went sky diving with a group of people from work as a charity event, which was good fun. For the boys there was Monday night football.