Assistant Product Manager, Small Cars Review

I really enjoyed my time working with Renault UK. I got to experience so many things that none of my peers on other placements got to do, and had a great time doing so! The people were great fun and there was always good banter throughout the office between students and managers alike

I felt very valued by everyone in the business from day one. They all treat you as a permanent employee and not just another placement student which is great. The level of responsibility given, and the inclusion on important meetings and trips really shows this and made for a very beneficial year

There was always plenty of support available from my manager. They are very active in assisting you and checking you are okay with your work when you start which is reassuring, and leave you to be more independent as you grow in confidence. However they are always fully willing to help and assist if you have any problems

As with any job the work loads varies, you will have days when your are non stop all day, as well as days when you have a bit more time to go over things and take your time. However there is always work available and manager are very willing to give you more jobs and responsibility if you ask

Throughout my placement I was given more and more responsibility as time went on and I became settled in my role. My manager was always very willing to involve me in high profile tasks, be it through being asked by her to produce something, or by just me expressing an interest

I can definitely see how I have progressed as an individual from when I began to when I finished and that will definitely help me in my final year of studying. My way of approaching and thinking about things has changed and my business skills have been improved a lot more than they would sitting in a lecture theatre.

The atmosphere in the office was always really good. There was a lot of banter between interns and managers alike which made it an enjoyable environment to work in. the officer is quite open plan so walking and communicating between departments is easy and encourages as opposed to just emailing each other.

We had a good number of nights out as an intern group especially during handover with the old interns as an icebreaker, there are around 20 placement students so there is always bound to be somebody willing to do something! Company organized things such as football, rounder's etc are also great fun and fairly regular

Obviously being inside the M25 means prices are naturally higher and Rickmansworth is quite an affluent area. Prices were not stupidly high though and cheaper than you'd expect in central London, However as there were a few work socials in London, be prepared for £10 cocktails and £6 pints as a norm.

Watford is a 10 minute taxi ride north of the office and some of the interns lived there so this was a good place to go out. Uxbridge is also 10 minutes south and although a student town only has 1 small club, Central London is a 40 minute tube journey so there were a few work socials there which were always fun

I was a core member of the Renault UK football team with games almost every week against other local businesses. This was always a great laugh as well as a good opportunity to make friends from other parts of the business that I would not normally interact with. We also had a few rounder's and cricket tournaments throughout the year