Marketing Assistant Review

From a work perspective I felt the experience wasn't quite what I was anticipating. I went into the role as the first placement student the team had ever had, and because of this I felt that they were somewhat unprepared. The projects I had in the pipeline were fine to start with as they blooded me in nicely to the role, however after finishing the original projects I felt my line manager was almost stuck with what to task me with next. I ended up having to be fairly proactive in getting involved in a couple of projects which weren't originally set out for me, which were possibly my more enjoyable projects. The company as a whole was great though. The office, the people and the social side of my placement was brilliant and I did genuinely enjoy my year out.

I would say I felt slightly under-valued by my team in some aspects. In terms of feedback, I was always praised for the good work I was doing and they highlighted areas I should look to develop further. However I don't think I was given enough responsibility, or at least as much responsibility as some of the other placement students which I did find frustrating sometimes.

My level of support varied. At the start I had regular meetings with my manager to make sure all my projects were ticking along in the right direction. After a while these meetings more or less stopped and I would have to arrange meetings myself if I was ever in need of more than just a quick chat.

This varied as I would have some weeks where my calendar was more or less fully booked and others where I would be stuck for things to do. However I don't think this is anything in particular to do with my team or 3M as a placement provider as a lot of my friends also found the same in which ever division or company they were in.

Responsibility did vary also. I was leading a few important projects for the such as organising the annual training event for the division across west-europe, but then a lot of my other projects I felt weren't that important for the direction of the division. I wish I had the opportunity to manage a project which I felt would make a difference to the divisions performance externally, however I did lead a couple of projects which really helped the internal performance for my team/division.

Although I may be giving a fairly neutral review of 3M's placement scheme, I still believe I learned a lot from my time there. I definitely have come out of the placement more confident and I did get the chance to develop skills such as negotiation which you can't really touch at university.

Generally the office atmosphere was great and everyone was very friendly and respectful.

From a managerial or team perspective I don't think I they were prepared enough, however the overall recruitment and development process was very good.

There was a scheme called Emerging Talent which enabled placement students and graduates to develop important skills and focus on areas they want to improve on. This was very interactive and quite practical in teh workplace.

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We had a great group of placement students for our intake. Majority of us got on really well and spent a lot of tiem together outside of work, even if we didn't all live together. Some students lived at home and some were from reading uni, but in the house of just 3M placement students we had a little social hub for the weekends.

Accommodation was cheap however going out was sometimes expensive depending on whcih nights you went to.

Reading nightlife was okay and to be honest it was worse than I was expecting. However when you're with good people it takes the edge off the slightly cringey clubs.

I was heavily involved in all things Football at 3M and ended up organising teh company's 6-a-side on a Monday after work.