Stakeholder Delivery Specialist Review

I loved my placement at National Grid. I was involved in a variety of different projects and went on many site visits. I had a limited knowledge of the energy industry before I started and I feel that although I still have so much more to learn, that I have a much clearer understanding of how the energy industry and National Grid operate now. National Grid is such a diverse company with so many different business areas, which has made it all the more exciting - definitely the best thing I decided to do!!

I felt very valued by my colleagues. I was expecting to be treated as a "student" as I didn't know to expect any different. It couldn't have been more of the opposite; I was treated as any other normal member of staff, which I love! Everyone is so lovely to work with and more than happy to help with anything/answer any questions I have. I feel I have built many positive business relationships with people since I have been here and everyone was just so welcoming when I started

I couldn't have had a more supportive manager! We have weekly 1-2-1 meetings where I can give him a progress update on how I am getting on with my work/any concerns I have etc. He has been completely supportive of the university paperwork I have had to fill out every quarter or so and when I have had my university tutor visit. He has pushed me out of my comfort zone a lot, and at first I wasn't overly keen on it, but now looking back on the last 10 months I have been here, I can't thank him enough for doing this, as I have come so far as an individual, improving on my confidence and communication skills, which I wouldn't have done if he hadn't have done this. Furthermore, he takes a lot of time to review my progress every quarterly review, filling out the relevant paperwork, which I realise can be difficult with how busy he is daily!

I was very busy on a daily basis, the days always flew by! Having 3 or 4 projects on my objectives always gave me something to be getting on with. Some were due to last a quarter, whilst others were year-long, so the priorities always changed on which project I would be doing throughout the year. Furthermore, with the extra project another placement student and I decided to do, this guaranteed more work still. When deadlines were approaching I would sometimes work from home in the evenings, but then if I didn't have such a long commute home I would have stayed later at work, so this was to be expected, as it is required sometimes to put that extra graft in to ensure the highest standard.

I was given a huge amount of responsibility, nothing like what I expected before I started. At first, I feel I struggled a little with the lack of confidence I had, so I didn't believe in myself when it came to larger responsibilities. However, the fact that people were happy to give me and trust me with the responsibility, showed me that they believed in me and this improved my confidence. For example, many of the projects I have had to do, I have been left to my own devices, with the support and guidance there if I require it. On another project, it is split into sub-projects and I actually have my name as project leads for a couple of these. For example, a few of the engineers down in North London have been trialling a translation app on their iPhones. It was down to me to explain this concept to the Customer Liaison Officers, come up with a draft trial plan and then the message was passed onto the engineers. A week into the trial or so, it was down to me to give each engineer a call to find out first impressions, and then towards the end of the trial I will have to ring them again to find out their full feedback to feed into a template which will be presented at a cross-industry meeting. So it is on me to gather this feedback, with the support there if I require!

In terms of the subject specific skills I will take back to university, I feel I have improved my problem solving skills greatly, which is required for a degree in Physics. I have improved on a few of my computing skills whilst at work, which has steered me into the final year project I have chosen, which is computer based as opposed to experimental! I attended a couple of training courses to help me improve on my personal impact, confidence and building positive business relationships at work and I believe these will stay with me for a long time! These helped me understand and tackle the lack of confidence in myself, which I have never been able to do throughout my school years, so I believe I have started to finally believe in myself a bit more and get over my confidence issues due to the training and situations I have experienced whilst on this placement. I am very grateful for the support I have received with this from a variety of people and how keen they all have been in wanting to help me.

The atmosphere was very pleasant in my office. With a team of over 40 people and the hot desking, you always sat next to someone different each day, which was nice. Everybody does such different roles, so it's great when I talk to people, not in my direct team, about what they do that I increase my business knowledge even further. Within our team, projects and work tasks are quite long-term, so it wasn't a hugely fast-moving atmosphere, which was good for my first year here, although I can imagine in places such as the call centre, the atmosphere is completely different. When it was someone's birthday or someone had come back from holiday, they would bring in cakes/sweets for everyone, which was a lovely thought and I also joined in on this too. Furthermore, there was always changing faces, with people leaving and new people coming into the team quite frequently, which must be quite daunting coming into a larger team, I can admit to that, but everyone is so welcoming and lovely to talk to, that it creates a great team atmosphere to work within.

I feel to start off with the work placement could have been organised a bit better. Initially, I told I was going into one team with a certain line manager, but it was either a couple of weeks before/the day I arrived I was told I was now in another team with a different line manager to what I had been told. I realise this was for my benefit, so that I would have a line manager who was in the office more days of the week, but it was just a little bit here and there when I first started. However this is really the only negative I had to the organisation of the placement, everything else was great! We were told a good few weeks in advance about each quarterly review date, and for our final presentation date/content we were told about this 6 or 7 months in advance so we had PLENTY of time to prepare etc.!

As mentioned previously, I feel the company invested a lot of time and money into my personal training and development. I have progressed so far as an individual since I have been on this placement and that wouldn't have been without the support from the company. The initial three days of training at the start of the placement, before we went into the office really benefited me and set me up/gave me an idea for what I would be in for. Then the couple of training sessions I attended were very beneficial and made me think in a different way about things, helped me to tackle my confidence issues. Also, the monthly 1-2-1's, I have had with my HR coach has helped me no-end too, as I was able to just sit there and talk about my insecurities and she would sit, listen, try to find out the root causes and help me tackle these. Again, I am so grateful for this extra support, as I realise she is a very busy lady at work.

I would love to come back on the graduate scheme, the year I have spent here at National Grid, has been so great, I have met so many new people, learnt so many new things and my number one goal at the end is to be offered a place on the graduate scheme for when I finish university. It excites me, because as mentioned previously, the company is so large and varied, there is so much of it I haven't experienced yet and I would love the chance to be able to do this! Furthermore, I have only been here for a few months, but in that time I can tell that this company are great to work for and they really look after you well, in all aspects, so I would love to stay here for years to come if given the chance.

I spoke to more placement students than others. There were only 3 placement students at Hinckley, including myself, whom one of them I worked in the same team as, so obviously I had more contact with him. Having another placement student in the team, was very re-assuring when I started, not being the most confident of people - there was someone else in the same boat as me. We have worked closely on a lot of projects throughout the year and I have made a great friend, who I will have for hopefully years to come. The other placement students based elsewhere, I would normally only have real contact with at organised events etc. In terms of colleagues, in my direct team I feel I know everyone really well and would like to stay in contact.

I stayed in Nottingham throughout the duration of my placement and commuted in to Hinckley every day. The commute would take about an hour each way and would cost £40-£50 on petrol a week, so this was quite expensive. I would recommend possibly staying in the area in which you are working, just because sometimes the commute can take it out of you and then there is the risk of traffic which can make your day even longer and reduce the amount of time you have to yourself in a day. But obviously it is all about practicality and what you want to do, and for me, moving to Hinckley wasn't practical.

Again, I stayed in Nottingham, where the nightlife is great, lots of restaurants, bars, clubs, cinemas etc. so plenty of things to do. However, working in Hinckley, from people who live here, I have heard that the nightlife isn't the best, there are a few bars, of which I have been to a couple after work before heading home etc. which were perfectly reasonable. But then does it really matter how good the night life is if you're only going to be living there for a year and you can travel further afield when you want a proper night out at the weekend anyway?

In the almost year that I have been there, my team has had a couple of away days in which we have done extra things outside of work before this. The last one we had, the afternoon of the day before the away day, once we had all finished, we were put into teams, did a treasure hunt around Hinckley, followed by a pub quiz and then we went out for a meal - this was great fun! I attended the Christmas Party which was on a narrow boat cruise in Birmingham followed by a few drinks in a bar, which again was lovely! I have also been to a couple of team meals after work and it's just nice to socialise with these people away from the office also. Furthermore, a few people in the team hire out badminton courts in the local leisure centre a couple of days a week and just go to keep fit and have fun after work, unfortunately as I live further away and like to get home before the traffic, I haven't ever been, but the option has always been there. So in this respect, there are always plenty of activities to get involved in.