HR Industrial Placement Review

I found my placement year to be an incredibly valuable year which helped me to gain experience in a multinational company as well as develop the knowledge and skills I need in order to successfully pursue a career in human resources. It also gave me the opportunity to network and build working relationships.

Throughout the duration of my placement year I felt completely valued by all my colleagues within the head office, as well as my team. From my first day I was welcomed in the team and by the end of my placement year I felt I had worked with them for years and not just 12 months.

Throughout the 12 months I was given a lot of training to help develop my skills so I could complete tasks without making any mistakes. If I ever need any support I aways had my manager on hand to help me, and I was given full support if required when completing projects over the year.

At the beginning of my placement year, I had day-to-day tasks which kept me busy everyday, however after 6 months this increased because of different projects and events that we were running. I was involved in a number of projects which all required tasks to be completed on prompt deadlines.

At the beginning of my placement year I shared responsibility with others as I was still having training, however I was still given responsibility in certain day-to-day tasks. After 6 months, I was assigned my own projects to complete, which were fully my responsibility. Towards the end of my placement I was also admin for the whole team, so my responsibility increased even more.

The skills I have developed and the training I have received throughout my placement year have already been incredibly useful whilst studying for my final year at university. As I want to pursue a career in HR, I believe these skills and training that I have developed will also assist me in having a successful career.

Throughout my placement year, the atmosphere within the head office was fun as well as professional. Everyone in the office made an effort to speak to others and check in on them and there were many occasions where the office got together to have fun. Over the summer months every Friday was a half day so the office often got together in the afternoon to network with each other and have fun.

I found my placement year to be very organised and set up well for my time there. I had regular one to one meetings with my manager weekly and if necessary daily to make sure everything was funning well. The projects I was involved in were set up and handbooks were provided to me at the start of my placement so that everything went to plan and I understood the process of my placement.

During my placement year, I was given a number of training opportunities to develop my skills and knowledge further. This included personal development sessions, Microsoft and placement training, computer system training, and different HR legal training schemes. As well as these schemes I was also giving one to one training and being developed by managers. All of these training methods have helped to prepare me for my future career in HR.

Working with McDonald's was an incredible opportunity, and if I was ever to be offered to return, I would of course say yes, because they are an extraordinary company where I learnt a lot in 12 months, so I'm sure this would be even better if I was to work there permanently. There is nothing that I can pinpoint in a negative way which would lead to me finding future employment within this organisation unappealing.

There was very good and fun social scene for the duration of my placement and following placement too. If it wasn't social team nights out, or events and nights out with the office, then there was always social events with my fellow placement students. Everyone was very sociable, and this allowed for many nights out and team events for us to all get together and socialise and have some fun.

As my placement was based in London, the cost of living was very expensive and obviously the cost of bars and places to go on nights out were also just as costly. I was living in East Finchley which is in Zone 3 as this was the cheapest I could find at the furthest distance I wanted to be from the office because of the travelling to work every morning. Although it was costly, work financed most of the social nights out so I was still able to have fun and enjoy myself over the 12 months

The nightlife in London is incredibly as everyone knows, it's a big city with plenty of options for people to go to in order to have a fun night out. I managed to explore many of these with work on team nights out and events that the office organised. This was one of my main highlights of the year, as it was great to be able to experience the night life often and try out so many different places.

As discussed in my previous comments, there were many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work. These opportunities included, half day Fridays over the summer where we usually would socialise as an office, there were also many team events which involved activities outside of work for us all to socialise and have some fun together. Some events were also around europe which allowed us to travel and experience different countries together.