HR Assistant Review

I joined the company at a very interesting time. By my second day, my immediate manager had left the company and a week later the director transferred to another division. The first few weeks were filled with uncertainty, but were quite exciting, and I had to learn quickly as our team was just the two of us (myself and my predecessor). During my time here we've been through two redundancy exercises, a merger and a number of office closures. In February, during the first redundancy exercise, I was not enjoying my job at all. But after a difficult period, and a new team, I started to enjoy my job again, and now, a few days before my last day, am very sad to be going.

My current team are very close, and we work very well together. Although they're all senior to me, it never feels like it when they ask me to complete tasks, and they treat me with a great deal of respect and kindness.

One of my bosses is in the senior management team, so I know all of the team, and they are all very helpful when I have questions. They all had advice for me when I joined the company, and now have plenty for when I go back to university!

This varied quite a lot, as we had periods of a lot of activity when I was rushed off my feet and staying until quite late in the evening, and sometimes it was very quiet. However, the mixture was quite nice, as sometimes it's nice to be a bit quieter!

I had two direct bosses during my time here (not including the one that left on my second day). The first I had for the majority of my year, and although we got on very well, i was often kept out of the loop with various problems or situations. During the first redundancy exercise I was not involved at all in any of the calculations, meetings or even the administrative tasks. But my second boss has been much better, and I feel a lot more trusted with confidential information, and I was involved in the second redundancy exercise a lot more.

This year has been an amazing experience for me, and I see it as the most beneficial year of my degree so far. I've learned so much that I will use in my final year, and having experience in my chosen career area will help me get a job when I've graduated. I'm so glad I did a placement year, and I couldn't recommend it enough to second years considering doing one.

When I joined we worked in a different office to the one where we are now, which was a fantastic environment to be in. Everyone knew each other and lunches and after work drinks happened every week. However, in October we moved to another larger office, the company's main office. This office had a very different atmosphere, and was much quieter than the previous one had ever been! This got a lot better though, as time went on.

At my company the placement scheme is done in conjunction with the graduate scheme. There is a four day induction when you join, introducing you to the company as a whole, and then a shorter, one day induction within your own division. The welcome to the company was brilliant, and twice throughout the year, the team held IP days, in which all the placement students in the company got together to talk about how it was going, what kind of work we were doing, how we were finding it and so on. These days were great, but I think the scheme could benefit from more regular contact with the students.

I went on one training course, for SAP, which was brilliant. I use SAP a great deal so this course was very beneficial for me. That was the only thing I had in terms of official training, but my team spent a lot of time training me informally.

Although I'm very sad to be leaving, the current state of the business doesn't suggest that it would be a good place to go back to, or if there would actually be a position for me. However, if there was an offer for me, I would definitely consider going back.

There were monthly events held for placement students and graduates, that were held in bars and clubs all around London.

I didn't live in the area where I lived, but socialising was quite expensive. But that's expected in central London!

There's always something going on around the area, working 10 minutes down the road from Camden and 15 minutes away from Leicester Square and Covent Garden, but there are also a few pubs all around the office.

There may have been activities going on, but as I had two hours travel ahead of me to get home, I didn't participate in them. But I did go out for a few drinks quite often.