Project Assistant Review

The job was a great experience as I was working for a prestigious multinational, and had the opportunity to go taking on additional responsibilities over time if I wanted to.

All my colleagues - with the exception of one or two veterans in another department - valued my contributions greatly. I would always be involved in different meetings where I could give input at any time.

Management were very supportive. I carried out a research project whilst working there and they were always willing to provide guidance and/or information. However, I did tell them that there was room for improvement on the induction training as certain elements were overlooked by managers and the other placement students and I did not know fundamental things that we should have been told about.

I was rushed off my feet. It got to a point where I worked 8-4 in the office and then went home and worked online until 11pm and on weekends in some cases due to huge volumes of work and tight delivery deadlines to the client.

Over time I was given more and more responsibility. I spent the last 3 months implementing changes to the employee timesheet system that I had done a research project on. In addition to this, I took on project manager responsibilities in areas such as client billing.

The skills and training were invaluable and highly transferable. Managing and allocating costs and suppliers is something all businesses need to be good at, and I improved my skills in these two areas in particular.

The atmosphere was great. It was really relaxed despite the tight client deadlines and most people were very friendly and helpful. It is one of the main reasons I would go back to that office, despite it being in Slough!

Being in Slough meant not being in the European HQ. This resulted in the 4 placement students in Slough being slightly insolated from the other 100 or so students at other sites. Nevertheless, I learnt a lot, even if it wasn't through a formal placement training scheme.

I was basically free to attend any training I wanted to and my line manager was great in this respect. I spent time obtaining lean six sigma yellow belt certification for example.

I have had a job offer from before I left the organisation and being such a large organisation it always has several deparments and divisions looking for placement students/graduates.

Due to the fact that there were only 4 placement students in the Slough office, the social scene was pretty quiet. However, you could always join in with your other colleagues social events.

Slough is very expensive, especially when you consider that it is not the nicest place in England! Most of us went out in Windsor which was just down the road, but it is notoriously expensive there - more so than Slough.

I don't rate nightlife in Slough highly at all. What's more I would recommend being careful as I had racist comments shouted at me as I walked along the street at 9pm.

Like I said, after work you do not want to hang around Slough for any social or leisure activities. I know that the guys met up once a week for a football match as well as the odd night out in Windsor.