Technical Support Analyst Review

I have really enjoyed my placement year. It has opened my eyes to the sheer vastness of information available in such a massive organisation and how an organisation of this size is constantly changing. The job assigned to me has been a constant challenge (in a good way) and has pushed me to strive to better my knowledge.

The people have all been amazing. They have been very kind, helpful and supportive throughout my journey here in HP. There has not been any point where I have felt left out within my team, the morale has been in constant harmony. It has been amazing to be able to interact with people from all over the globe and working with a new culture of people (and difference in timezone) has been a new great experience for me.

I have been given support and guidance from my manager, but mainly I have been trusted by him to fulfill the task assigned to me. We spent time going through the task assigned to me and I know that I am able to ask for help at any time.

My job has been made up of very varied tasks such as; self learning on BI software, building new reports, creating documentation or training other people. Throughout the course of my project I may have hit the occasional bump in the road where certain tasks have taken longer than I have anticipated, but there has not been a time where I have felt too busy or bored.

I have been the lead on a project to integrate a new Business Intelligence software application into the region (in the initial stage) and set up automated reporting, from here I have then been trusted to roll this application out to other teams on a world wide basis.

Every part of my year here has been about learning new skills and taking into account the vastly varied environment and culture a global organisation like HP brings. The technical and personal skills I have acquired will most definitely serve me for years to come.

The environment is enjoyable, everyone works hard and when there's time for a giggle everyone joins in! It is a relaxed and trusting atmosphere. They office as whole really goes all out when it comes to raise money for charity, everyone gets involved. I've really enjoyed the experience working in this office!

Everything I needed for when I started was ready and waiting when I walked through the door! There was no waiting for login credentials etc. it was perfectly done.

The company invested in us deeply when it came to our training and development. As aforementioned, during our first few weeks we were taught about the company and what it stood for, given many training courses to do and even put on a three day ITIL course where we were taught the ITIL foundation course by a qualified instructor and had the opportunity to sit the test for it as well, which was all paid for. Other than that the performance reviews which were held every 3/4 months really helped in indicating where you were doing well and what areas you could maybe improve on

Future employment prospects are very appealing within the organisation. The company's graduate scheme is one of the best in the country, offering benefits the same as a normal employee, a two year contract at least a very competitive starting salary which is accompanied by a great sign-on bonus.

At the very beginning there was a great social scene between my fellow interns, graduates and apprentices. Unfortunately soon after we arrived this dwindled. We then took it upon ourselves to start organising the nights out as it was a great way to get to know people your own age, from all over the world really, especially being an intern who moved from a different country, knowing no-one in Newcastle!

The cost of living and socializing in Newcastle wasn't too bad. I came down from Aberdeen in Scotland, where the cost of living was £500 a month for shared accommodation but socializing was dirt cheap.

The nightlife in Newcastle is pretty good! Don't let the Geordie shore crowd throw you off, as they show it to be dingy. There are a wide variety of clubs to visit and bars for that matter, there is literally something to suit absolutely everybody. There's a lot of bars which do three treble vodkas for £5. Some bars which do student deals; two jagaerbombs and two double vodkas for £5. Some clubs stay open until 6/7am.

There are lots of opportunities to get involved with activities outside of work. Every week we get a communications email which is sent internally to the entire site, informing us of all the upcoming events, news etc. You get informed of charity events/volunteer events, who to contact to get involved, sporting events going on in the area,