Sales Support Team/Health Team Review

I undertook both a twelve month placement, and then a three month placement at Atos. The first placement was not overly enjoyable if I'm honest, however the second placement was in fact quite enjoyable.

In the first placement, I did not feel very valued by my colleagues, especially as I was given quite menial tasks, and worked remotely for the second half of the placement. In the second placement, I felt the opposite, in being very valued by my manager, as I was given tasks with considerable responsibility, and was aware of the contribution I was making to the business.

In the first placement, I was not given that much support or guidance by management, and it was actually from a colleague whom was in my team for a period that provided me with support & guidance. In the second placement, I was given considerable support and guidance in carrying out the tasks I was responsible for.

In the first placement, I was relatively under-capacity in terms of workload, and had to spend quite alot of time trying to look busy. In the second placement, I was much busier, and normally had a considerable lists of tasks that I had to complete.

In the first placement, I was not given much responsibility, even when I was pushing to get more responsibility from the management. In the second placement, I was given plenty of responsibility, and had a lot of autonomy in how I approached my tasks and responsibilities.

In the first placement, I did learn some commercial-based skills that will help me in the future, though I feel that the opportunity to develop more skills should have been provided. In the second placement, I learnt some crucial skills, especially around sales that will be highly valuable.

For three quarters of the first placement, I was based in the London office for 3/4 days a week, and worked from home the rest of the week. The London office has a hot desking system, so you are unsure of who you will be sat next to each day, and that has both pros and cons. The atmosphere is quite quiet, sometimes I would go a whole day without speaking to anyone. However there is a break-out area where people can meet up, chat and have a coffee. For the rest of my first placement and the second placement, I worked 90% of the time from home.

There is not that much to say about the organisation of the placement, as it was neither bad nor good. The only point I can really make, is that there was not much communication at all with the HR team responsible for interns throughout the placement.

There was the standard training courses around subjects such as document formatting, and coping with stress, however I received no specialist training of note, except attending the graduates' induction course for a couple of days.

There is plenty of options for a future career at Atos for myself, however I don't think I will be pursuing any of these. If I did wish to pursue such an option, I would be eligible to receive sponsorship through my final year at University, to the value of £1,500.

For the first six months at Atos, another intern worked within my team and we socialised often. However outside of that there was a relatively little number of social events.

The cost of living in London is very expensive, and the cost of socialising is no different.

There is plenty of pubs and bars near to the office.

Nope. there was not many out of work opportunities, just social events on occasions.