Supply Chain Projects Review

My Placement year was fantastic, the work I was set was challenging yet enjoyable and really pushed me outside of my comfort zone, meaning over the year I developed a well rounded set of skills. The people I met were fantastic, always offering advice and support and I felt like a real member of the team not just a placement student.

Everybody that I met was really friendly and approachable. I very quickly fitted into the team and by the end of the placement I didn't feel like a placement student, but a member of the team. This was heightened by being set 'real' work which offered value to the business meaning that I, and my team, felt that I was bringing real benefit to the business - this definitely made me feel valued.

My placement had the perfect balance of clear support and direction, yet also providing me space to grow by myself. My manager was always available to offer me advice, but I was given responsibility to shape the projects that I was working on which meant that I was able to develop and learn for myself.

Initially I probably didn't have enough work to start of with, but I think that is partly because I really enjoy being busy. I therefore fed this back to my manager who instantly increased my workload, until I felt that I was being fully utilised and also developing my time management skills,

My placement was based around me completing two main projects, as well as smaller side projects. These main projects were completely my responsibility, I had to scope the projects, understand the deliverables and ensure that I delivered, whilst influencing others to deliver outcomes for the project. This meant that for my projects I was completely responsible, which was fantastic.

Although this placement has offered limited skills with regard to my degree discipline, because my degree is completely unrelated to my placement, it had provided me with a wealth of transferable skills both for University but for life. My placement really improved my confidence by engaging and influencing people at all levels of the business. This placement provided a fantastic mix of on the job and more formal training, which developed me as a person recognising my strengths and development areas, which have helped me to decide what business area I would like the pursue post-university. Overall, I feel that this placement year has given me a massive head-start in understanding the world of business and the softer skills that University doesn't provide.

Over this placement I worked in two offices, both of which had a fantastic atmosphere, Although, there were quiet times, overall the people in the office were really fun, not what I expected for my first 'proper job'!

My placement was really well organised with four development days with the other placement students throughout the year to share experiences and focus on specific development areas. In addition to this, my year was really well organised,, a lot of time and effort from my department was put in to ensure that I got the most out of my placement, with regular feedback sessions to ensure the placement was the best it could be. Throughout the year I felt fully supported and knew exactly what was expected from me and who I could talk to regarding advice and support. There was never a moment that I felt that this placement was disorganised.

As mentioned previously there was a fantastic blend of on the job and formal training. With regard to the on the job training, people were more than happy to give me their time to help me understand a programme or process, people couldn't have been more helpful. Equally, my manager was fantastic at ensuring that I was developing at the rate I wanted and if there was something that I wanted to experience was more than happy for me to do this. In this case, I spent a number of days in other area of the business and my manager was completely supportive of this. With regard to the formal training, with 4 days a year to focus solely on personal development this was great at tailoring the message to placement students and really got us to focus on certain development areas. In addition to this, during my placement I had great exposure and investment from the senior leadership in my department, with mentoring from a senior manager and quarterly catch-ups with my board director.

This is the only area of the placement that I think could be improved, although there are a number of graduate schemes, completing this placement does not give you any advantage, other than having completed a placement with the organisation.

There was a really good social scene with fellow placement students, we would go out for drinks after work at least every 2 weeks. Equally of the 12 placement students 9 lived in two houses, which meant that there was a really good social scene amongst the placement students. Unfortunatley, where I worked there wasn't a big culture of going for drinks after work because most people had families and drove into work.

It was definitely affordable.

A university town, but the nightlife on the weekend (when most full time placement students went out) was acceptable, but if you were looking for fantastic clubs this probably isn't the place for you, but living only 30 minute train journey from London might over-come this. Having said that there were a few good pubs that were frequented after work.

Being the John Lewis Partnership there were fantastic opportunities with the leisure benefits with a number of clubs and societies that you could join such as a wine club, choir or even sailing club.