Capital Analyst Review

I thoroughly enjoyed all aspects of my work placement at Cummins. The experience I have gained is second to none and my confidence within the working environment has increased greatly. I definitely made the correct decision in completing a placement year and now feel I can gain a lot more out of my final year at University than I maybe would have without this year in industry.

I was an important team member of the Capital Management team in the Worldwide Manufacturing Support department. My colleague within this department and across the business approached me regularly for information as they knew I would respond with accurate data in a timely manner.

From day one my manager made me aware that I could approach him with any questions I had and coached me on skills relating to a variety of things from Excel skills and writing macros, to project management and managing a team of people.

I feel my role had the perfect balance of being continuously busy and gaining experience, but without being 'too busy' and not having sufficient time to complete the work I was assigned. As I become more competent within my role I managed to complete core tasks quicker, freeing up more of my working week for other things. As my manager recognised this he assigned me with ad hoc work, assigned me projects etc. and so I gained more experience in these areas as well as developing my time management and planning skills.

The Capital Management process is an on-going process followed by the Capital Management team to accurately report data through the business. As soon as my manager was confident I had picked up the role he gave me full responsibility for it. I have continually run this process for the majority of my placement as well as managed projects within my department and for other departments within the business.

The main skills I have developed around managing processes, reporting accurate data in a timely manner, project manegement and communicating with colleagues throughout all levels of a multi-national company will play a major role in both my degree studies and for a future graduate job.

All of my colleagues both in my department and who I had interactions with on a regular basis across the business were extremely friendly and made the working day so much fun. There is a focused atmosphere on working together to achieve company goals and values, whilst not being too serious that you feel you can't have a laugh and generally enjoy coming to work. It was the perfect balance and I would definitely like to work here again in the future.

From the whole application and interview process to the job offer and starting work, the placement was structured very well.

Due to the nature of my role there wasn't a large amount of time free to undertake much training, however when opportunities arose I was able to undertake some courses. My manager continuously worked with me on my development within the role and with many key skills such as use of Excel, project management etc. throughout my whole placement. My level of knowledge is far more superior now than it was 12 months ago and I put that down to working around both talented and approachable people.

Because Cummins is such a large multi-national company they don't make an offer of a graduate job without following the normal application process, however being within a role and being noticed for your work by a variety of colleagues across the business greatly improves your chances of gaining a graduate job with them. I will certainly be applying as soon as the 2013-14 graduate jobs are advertised.

Because I was in a more office based role rather than an engineering role, I didn't have as many interactions with other placement students. Cummins takes on a large amount of students each year so there is a good social scene, it just wasn't something I was involved with as much.