Business Analyst Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my work placement at ABG, it was challenging enough and learnt a lot from it.

The Business Analysis team at ABG definitely felt more like a family by the time I left, we pretty much all sat together and had fortnightly/monthly BA meetings to discuss what work we were doing at the moment, and whenever you wanted help the other BAs would always be happy to help which was great.

My manager Paul was brilliant, with regular 1-1 meetings to catch up about what work I was doing he would also share what work he had and apply it and share his knowledge and experience when I needed help. It was also really beneficial that he had done a placement year when he was at university too.

There were times where there wasn't enough hours in the day, and there were also times where it was a bit quiet. No complains though, I think this is what its like in the working world, and helped me manage my time more and become proactive in quiet times.

I actually gradually started to become a Subject Mater Expert, because I was working on a project that over the course of my placement led me to be the longest person on the project! Therefore this became a great experience and at times had to report to the Director of our area, run several meetings and phone conferences which included third parties.

I think the skills that I developed and training given on my placement definitely have set me up well for my final year of university and applying for jobs in the future, for example learning to prioritise workloads became a skill which is really essential I believe..

In the IT area the atmosphere had quite a good balance, it wasn't too noisy but it wasn't too quiet either.

Although my work placement didn't have a set structure, I was always given options along the way by my manager to work on different projects which kept it varied and interesting. In the end I decided to stay on a particular project for the whole placement year but also worked on several smaller projects alongside it which was a good and varied experience.

I think it was great that the company treated me like any other person in the BA Team, for example I was sent on a Business Analysis training course offsite in London. Also I was fortunate enough to travel abroad to both Germany and Spain throughout my placement as well as travelling to several different Rental Stations in the UK as part of project work.

When I left the company there was no formal graduate scheme in place, but this may change by the time I have graduated but couldn't say for sure. If a scheme was put in place, it would definitely be something I would consider applying for.

At the start of the year HR sent a group email to all the students so that we had the opportunity to all live together if we wanted, but of course some placement students lived at home and some had relocated. During the year there were a couple of evening events with the company, and a few nights out with the other students.

The placement was in Bracknell, but I think most students lived in Reading. As far as I know Reading is fairly reasonable to live and socialise in, I have been on several nights out there before..

Bracknell isn't great.. but the surrounding areas are good such as Ascot, Windsor, Reading.

There is social football generally every Friday lunch time held offsite which was good, and apart from that there are occasional nights out.