Business Support Analyst Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement year and it was a great experience of working in industry.

I was one of a team of five supporting the whole of the Nestle UK&I business. Due to the nature of having a small team I felt extremely valued by my colleagues and it was easy to build strong working relationships with these people. You are extremely valued by the team as although you are a placement student you are treated as just another member of the team and given as much responsibility as everyone else. The team also arranged social events outside of work to welcome me to the team and help me settle in the role.

For the duration of my placement year I was allocated both a mentor and a trainer to help me integrate into the role. I was also given a lot of support from my line manager who offered one to one meetings whenever I felt it was necessary and was also provided with review meetings to discuss my progress and help me develop further in the role. My line manager was very supportive of my decision to aspire towards a graduate role with Neslte and provided me with lots of guidance to help me achieve this.

The workload within this role can vary. As you are a support contact for the rest of the UK&I business, depending on how many issues are raised that particular week your workload may higher or lower. In order to help balance this workload I was provided with project work to fill in the "not so busy" gaps during my day. My mentor was responsible for helping me manage my workload and I was able to ask for extra work where appropriate and also able to ask for guidance on how I should prioritise my workload if I felt I had too much on. The team were always very supportive surrounding this issue.

I was extremely surprised by the level of responsibility that I was given within my role as Business Support Analyst. I was able to experience solely managing a project and was involved in other high profile projects. Throughout the duration of my placement year I have been one of the first points of contact for any end user issues with one of the key forecasting tools used within the business which went live at the start of my placement year. This is a huge responsibility to be given to a placement student!

Due to the nature of the role I have had exposure to many different areas of finance within Nestle. I have developed understanding of different tools and systems used and also had exposure to some of the different processes. This will be valuable knowledge when I begin the graduate role within the finance department at Nestle. Some of the learnings and training I have been given with assist me with my final year degree studies as I have gained exposure to how some accounting principles are applied in a business environment.

I was based in York and the offices are quite basic; however, you are in the same room as all of your colleagues and the people are all very friendly.

The work placement was very organised but I think could be improved by having a plan at the start of the year of what you are going to be involved in. However, I think the opportunities that you are given are based on your own success in the role and how dedicated you are to striving towards your goals.

My team were extremely dedicated to encouraging my training and development. They looked for opportunities for me to improve in certain skills where they may have been lacking. They provided me with a training plan at the beginning of my placement year to monitor my progress. There was also the opportunity available to sign yourself up for courses to take time out of work to improve your development E.g. excel course.

I have been offered a position on the Finance Graduate Scheme and I am very excited to return after I have completed my university studies!

I am in a department with 6 other placement students so the social scene is very good within this department.

Cost of living may be slightly higher in York to other areas - but definitely worth it. It is such a lovely place!

The nightlife has been relatively good...

Sadly there wasn't really anything!