Jr Performance Tester Review

My placement was extremely hard and 100% challenging. But i have enjoyed every minute of it, and for this reason i give it top rating. Every team member has made me feel welcome from day 1 and i can honestly say i will be sad to leave!!

Over the year i have built up an extremely good working relationship with the team and also a personal relationship with a few of them too. during this year there have been occasions that we have gone for lunch, christmas meals and have even been invited out on the weekends. From a work point of view i feel like i am not only respected but also trusted. At one point i was left on my own to look after a team of 6 people while they were all on a training course. Although this was a difficult week, it gave me and amazing feeling of success and i received a lot of praise once the team returned.

If i encountered any issues i was asked to tackle it on my own. However, if i ended up unsure on what to do next, i could stop and ask any of the team members and they were all willing to help me out! I spent a lot of time with my team leader and learn a lot from him. He took me through basics during the first month and after that started getting me to do all of the hands on work. this was an extremely valuable experience and i am forever greatful for this opportunity!!

I have rated this as just under "Perfect Balance". However, I feel that i can handle an extreme ammount of pressure. If you are a person that gets easily stressed of struggle to handle multiple projects at the same time then i would not recommend this sort of job. This year i have had upto 8 projects running concurrently, some of which were high priority and had the potential of becoming pollitical. You need to have the mind set to deal with this sort of situation, otherwise you will end up far to stressed, which will result in degradation of your work quality.

Through out my placement i was given a tremendous ammount of responsibility. At one point i was left in charge while all other (seven) team members went to london for a week to complete a training course. During this time i had to take on the roles and responsibilities of all other team members. I am thankful for this opportunity as i was extremely nevous at first but after completing this challenge successfully I proved to my self that i could acheive almost anything i aimed for.

The training and skills that i have picked up through out my placemetn will stay with me for the rest of my life. Interpersonal skills i feel that i will be able to use everyday from now on. and the more technical skills i will be able to adapt and use through out all types of work i encounter in the future. I have also picked up skills that will help with personal computing (i.e. tricks and tips with word processing and presentations).

The atmosphere in the office was very laid back. As long as i did what i was asked to do i could sit and chat to my collegues. It has been a lovely working environment. But as mentioned this is if you complete the work as requested. The company would take a dim view on anyone turning up to work and not working properly!!

I would say almost perfect, i felt that at first i was "thrown in at the deep end" and my learning curve was almost verticle ... But after working here for a year i now realise that without taking this approach i would not have gotten up to speed fast enough! All though this approach proved difficult, it was also extremely beneficial!

Within reason (as i was only at the company for 12 months) i was given every opportunity regards training. I had a few issues to work on that were noticed in the first few months, in relation to my communication / phone skills ... I was offered 2 training courses to help this situation which i feel both worked very well!! I was also offered internet based training to improve my knowledge of software used within the team.

I would deffinately come back to work for TNT ICS Express!! And i have been told that the company would like me to come back after i finish university ... However, realistically that all depends on if there is a vacancy available when i finish in a years time. Ill have to wait and see.

From what i hear there was alot of interaction between students and alot of 'days out' arranged (such as go karting etc). However, Having a lot of work on at TNT and also having a lot on at home, i chose to avoid these. This was more of a personal preference though and from what i hear the days out were great and extremely enjoyable.

I was commuting from home (parents home) so the only expense i had was petrol.

I cant really comment on nightlife as im from a very quiet part of the country. A night out for me would be at the pub with a few amtes and the girlfriend. As for where the offices are based, the closest place is atherstone, I know there are pubs... but im not sure if there are clubs etc.

As mentioned before, there was a student group that arranged days out. (but i personally chose not to get involved - i have heard from friends that these days were extremely enjoyable though)