Fleet Sales Review

I have enjoyed working at Vauxhall. there have been lots of oppertunities to work with people of different ages, races and cultures which had created an exciting environment to work in. I did have a few issues within my team and this made it hard to complete my role to the best of my ability as we were short staffed at times and the role is demanding as it is. It is a real job!

I do feel valued by my collegues and feel that the work I produce is valuable, necessary and used by not only my team but also by higher level managment. I am often praised for the work I prouduce and told that 'I did a great job'. Additionally I have monthley reviews with my manager to ensure that I feel included and valued by the team.

I have been given some suppport by my manager when asked for it as he is often at customer meetings offsite. My role has been quite independant and self-directioinal as it is a new role that was created for me and I do not currently have any supervisors. Unfortunatley, owing to sicknesses within my team, we have been short staffed making our already busy environment more busier! As a result of this the guidance and support I recieved has decreased.

I have been busy on every single day of my placement, there is always something to do! The roles we have are REAL jobs and therefore you have a REAL workload. During months where the Fleet department is not as busy , I am always asked/ can ask others to be involved in projects that other people in my team or other teams are working on.

I was given all of my responsibilites as soon as I started at Vauxhall. I have enjoyed this as I have had a real taste of 'the working world'. However, if at times I felt like I had been given too much/too little to do, I was able to express this to my manager during our monthley reviews and as a result was able to have as much/little responsibilites as required.

I honestly have leant so many skills during my placement that I would not have learnt through theory (books) at university. This includes: communication skillls, excel skills and even interpersonal skills. I feel this will give me an edge and make me more appealing to employers in comparison to postgraduate students that did not have a placement year.

The atmosphere at work was great! It is a real job in a real work ennvironment. It was completely different to the environment and atmosphere I was previously used to at university or even at my previous part time jobs. Everyone was friendly and made me feel really welcome. The need for the Fleet department to meet targets made the enviornment quite exciting.

I feel that the placement was very thought out as we had a HR representative that would solely look after all of the undergraduates needs in regards to holidays, housing and even issues within peoples departments. We had a handover period in which we introduced to the local town and places to socialise to ensure that we felt comfortable. Overall I have not had any majorproblems within the placement that needed/ or have not already been addressed.

Vauxhall have paid for and provided me with many training sessions throughout the year, These include : presentation training, multiple excel training sessions and safe driver training (by the AA). I was able to choose which of these sessions that I wanted to attend (even if they were not relevent to my role). However, I attended all of these trainins and every single one of the training sessions were very interesting and I felt I had gained alot from these.

Although Vauxhall do have a large undergraduate placement intake, they do not have a postgraduate scheme available. However they do employ undergradtes if they would be an asset to the firm. Personally, future employment at Vauxhall is not appealing to me only on the basis that I do not have a passion for cars.

There is a large intake of between 70-100 undergrads every year, This creates a sort of 'Undergrad-community' where people live, work and socialise together. Furthermore Vauxhall had set up a two week 'freshers' period in which the new undergrads socials at bars, restaurants, bowling ect to ensure that they make friends and are aware of whats to do in Luton. Naturally towards the end of the year people fo split off into smalelr groups but then the freshers period comes around again in teh handover period when we leave and the new undergraduates start!

Living in Luton (i.e rent and bills) is cheap considering its so close to London which is great when you want to go into London for a night out. However there are not many young and hip places in Luton for a night out. However there are many nice pubs and restaurants that are a great laugh. There are also towns close by such as Harpenden and St Albans which have alot more to offer and are close by in distance.

The nightlife within Luton is not great! There are not any clubs to really go to and the only mediocre one (Liquid) has closed down because no one ever goes there! As mentioned before, London is close by and thats always a great night out. However with train costs/train time ristrictions it does make the night more expensive and difficult to plan! There is a club in St Albans that people tend to visit, however this would also require you to travel to a different location.

There are many oppertunities to get involved with as much/as little activites as you want. For example there are a couple of local gyms and sports clubs that allow people to join. Additionally there are many people within Vauxhall that are taking part in charity events such as London to Brighton bike ride. Personally I have not got involved with much as I ofoten visit friends on the weekends.