Trading Assistant Review

I really enjoyed my placement year and feel that it has been the most valuable year of my degree so far. There were lots of opportunities throughout my year and the chance to take part in exciting projects along side my day to day role. It's a very interesting industry to work in as everything is fast paced and ever changing which definitely made it enjoyable.

I always felt like a valued member of the team and was treated no differently to other employees. There is a big focus on team work and I always was supported and encouraged by others which helped my development over the year.

I had regular meetings with my manager to discuss progress and completed reviews throughout the year which helped to ensure my development. I found my manager to be supportive of my development in my day to day role more than on the scheme it self, but feel that I got the support required to push myself out of my comfort zone and get the most out of my placement year.

I was very busy on a day to day basis as a placement has the same amount of work and responsiblility as a normal employee. Along side this I had placement projects which meant balancing time effectively was required. I found that due to the nature of the business, certain times of the year were a lot busier than others which dictated my workload.

As mentioned above, I was given the same responsiblility as other employees which was great and made me feel like I was making a valuable contribution to the business. I was given so much more responsibility than any previous job which is what makes my placement year to help me to stand out from others.

Although the role I had wasn't my ideal choice, the skills I have developed will without a doubt be transferable to other roles and the rest of my degree. I feel like I have developed a well rounded skill set through the activities and work that I've done this year and by pushing myself out of my comfort zone I will be able to achieve a lot more than if I had not done a placement. I think TUI are very focused on developing individuals which helped a lot.

I found the atmosphere to be very laid back. It wasn't a very coroprate or heirarchial environment and everyone was approachable to matter what level or department.

The scheme is very well organised with a dedicated learning and development team to ensure that placements are getting the most out of their year. We had regular meetings, workshops and talks from other departments and the team did their best to accommodate requests about things we wanted to do in our time at the company.

I received a lot of systems training, insights into other departments and sessions such as Excel. Through regular line manager meetings it was possible to express an interest into how your development was structured.

Very appealing as the company goes from strength to strength. There are a lot of perks working for the company and there are so many roles which I never knew existed.

There were good social events organised by the commercial division but Luton as a place itself doesn't have so much to offer. However people are often up for going out further a field and are very friendly.

Luton is a very affordable place to live however it is quite limited. You aren't far from London though and there are good transport links to make up for this.

There isn't much nightlife in the area but it was easy to go to other places such as London, Harpenden or St Albans so this wasn't really a problem

Yes I took part in Netball which was organised by the company. There were also teambuilding events, company parties and socials.