Business Strategy and Consumer Insight Review

I can only describe my placement with McDonald's as an amazing experience. I truly enjoyed not only my day-to-day activities, but also working with my team and the people from other departments. If I had to go back I would definitely choose McDonald's again because of the fantastic time I had there.

I loved the team I was working with because nobody ever treated me as a student. I was treated as a valuable team member from day 1 and I loved the fact that my role was flexible enough to allow me to stretch myself and see how far I could go. My team made me feel like my work was a valuable contribution to the company which made me even more motivated. I felt like I was part of a family.

My supervisor was absolutely amazing! We had weekly catch-ups to discuss my progress and workload. She was always interested to hear how I felt about my work and whether I had any problems. In addition, she allowed me to attend all training courses that I wanted to attend. She was very approachable and I never felt scared to ask her for help or support.

My work-life balance was good. I didn't have too many situations when I had to stay overtime. However, I love being busy and therefore, I was able to attend after work workshops and research which meant that sometimes I was going home late. These were no compulsory and it was up to me to decide whether I wanted to be involved or not.

What I loved about my role was the flexibility. I had some core tasks that I had to do on continuous basis but once I felt settled I was able to take on more. My manager allowed me to choose the direction of my development. This was awesome because it allowed me to take the most out of my placement and I didn't have a boring day.

My placement with McDonald's vastly improved my skills, motivation and confidence. I was able to develop and use my strengths and work on my weaknesses. I attended Excel Intermediate and Advanced training as well as a workshop about my work style and personality at the work place.

The atmosphere in the office was great. Around Christmas we had a Christmas Jumper day, a Christmas Decoration competition and a lot of events organised to support the McDonald's Charity of Choice - Ronald McDonald House Charities. Additionally, my team had a Team Away Day once every few months. We were out of office for the day and did some fun team building activities.

I think the organisation of my placement was great! I had 4 weeks overlap with the student who did a placement with my team before me. During these four weeks she trained me on everything I had to know in order to do my regular tasks. I had weekly catch-ups with my manager to discuss my progress and needs as well as a 3-month performance review, 6-month performance review and an end of year performance review. It was all very well structured.

As a placement student I had to attend: - The Placement Students Development Day - which covered topics such as internal communication Additionally I could choose from a list of additional training courses. I choose: - Excel Intermediate - Excel Advanced - Insights Into Me Finally, sometimes during team meetings we had external people or people from other departments that were coming to give us an insight or tips. For example how to manage your mailbox effectively.

Unfortunately, the company doesn't have a graduate scheme, which is a shame!

I think some placement students got very close and stayed friends. I stayed in a very good relationship with the other placement student in my department as well as with the students before me and after me that did placements within the department.

The office is in zone 3 in London. I was lucky enough to live 5 min walking distance from the office. I can't say that living in London was cheap, but my salary was enough to cover my living costs and I even managed to save some money for my final year at uni.

I lived in East Finchley very close to the office. There were a few pubs around me, but nothing compared to the Central London Nightlife. However, going to the center was easy as I lived very close to the tube station.

I was able to attend focus/research groups. In addition, I went to a RMHC House with the other students to learn more about the charity and did some baking with a few girls for the families that were in the house. Because I worked with external agencies, I was also able to attend activities organised by them.