Early Trading Assistant Review

Overall I really enjoyed my year, I felt I fit well into my role and enjoyed all the oppurtunities we got on the scheme.

The team that I was in - Early Trading- is a really great team to be in. I felt that I was treated like a permenant employee and my suggestions were always listened too, I was given as much resonsibility as a normal employee and given the same development opportunities as well. The team is also really fun and socialable.

My manager was great in supporting me with work and also non work related issues. This has definitely had a positive impact because I can really notice how much I have developed my business skills between when I started and when I left. TUI has an ethos of 'coaching' rather than just training and I think it really works. I felt I could always go to my manager and also more senior managers with any problems and they would always be helpful and make time to support me.

It's hard to put a measure on this because being in the travel industry with different demand and booking curves means that every day/week/month will be different. I felt generally I had a good level of work - this obviously increased the further through my placement I got and as I took on more responsibility but I don't feel I was ever stressed out.

At TUI you have as much responsibility as a normal employee - I looked after roughly half a million capacity and had the responsibility to decide the strategy for the destinations, change prices, set my own targets etc. You don't have someone constantly looking over your shoulder and as long as you are confident in your decisions and have good analysis to back them up then the responsibility is all yours! With support from your manager of course :)

I think I learned some valuable business skills I can definitely put to use in the future such as presenting, challenging decisions, time management etc. In terms of applying this to my degree I think I will broadly be able to but because my role as an Early Trader is so specialised it doesn't really fit in with any of my modules back at uni.

The office is really open plan and relaxed, you're able to walk across to any of your key contacts rather than emailing them all the time which is nice. They also hold office events quite regularly like a town hall update from the MD, product days, themed canteen events etc.

TUI put alot of effort into making sure the scheme is well run and making sure they continually improve it. I think overall it was well run, throughout the recruitment process I was kept informed and throughout the year we have monthly meetings with the placement teams where we can give feedback/get feedback.

The placement scheme have a learning & development team and they provide workshops, visits to other departments etc. We also have mid year and full year reviews which are really good for getting feedback to develop.

I've been given the opportunity to join the team after uni so it's great that they've spotted some potential in me.

I'd say there is a good social scene available - I socialised more within my team than with the other placement students because I got on really well with my team. But theres summer and christmas parties, team events etc.

I didn't live in Luton so can't comment on that but socialising was fairly cheap. Obviously you can get into London pretty easier which is more expensive but if you stay in Harpenden/St Albans it's standard prices really.

Have seen better! Luton has a liquid which is interesting.... St Albans and Harpenden are nice for bars and pubs and then you have London which is quite easy to get to.

There were team events, fundraising events and sporting activities you could get involved in.