Project Management - Aftermarket Review

My placement year has been incredibly rewarding both personally and professionally. I have developed so much as a person, as well as in employability terms, and I am incredibly grateful for the year I have had. I am proud of what I have achieved and feel as though I have made a real business impact in some ways for both Cummins and its customers.

Everyone was very kind and welcoming when I first joined and I really felt valued by my whole team, as well as other cross functional teams. People were prepared to give recognition when they felt it was justified and this was extremely rewarding to receive, especially from those who don't work with you on a day to day basis. People were very professional, especially when dealing with difficult situations, and this only further allowed me to develop personally.

My manager was incredibly supportive and really pushed me to go above and beyond. We had a very open relationship which allowed us to discuss difficulties easily and also ways in which work could improve. My manager often supported me in taking the right direction and also had confidence in me to be able to do it on my own. This really allowed me to grow and develop as I knew that I had the capability to make the correct decisions and communicate the right messages where appropriate.

Due to the nature of the role some days were busier than others. There was always things to be getting on with and my manager always provided me with more if I asked. Due to my organisational skills I never felt like I was overloaded with work as I always planned out when I was going to do things and this was a big factor to the success of my year.

I was given a lot of responsibility very early on due to the capability I had shown and this really allowed me to grow and develop. I did far more than my role initially outlined and this was due to the fact that my manager was prepared to push me out of my comfort zone to allow me to work on skills I felt needed improving. I could not think of any ways I could have been given more responsibility than I was during my year.

I cannot express enough the amount I have developed and learned through my year at Cummins. Through the work I have been exposed to and also the faith my manager has shown in me, it has allowed me to learn new skills as well as develop on skills I already possessed. Some of the key skills I will be taking out of this year that will undoubtedly support me in my degree and beyond are resilience, confidence, self reflection and also adaptability.

If there was one thing that could have been improved during my placement year it would have been this. My department was not based in the main company building and, consequently, could be very quiet at times. I worked closely with my manager a lot of the time which meant that this was not so much of an issue, but during days where she was not in the office it felt like a library. This meant I had to adapt to find ways to motivate myself to stay productive.

Formal training was provided at the beginning of the placement which really supported the first few months. My manager put a lot of emphasis on my individual work plan which outlined targets I was expected to meet. This grew throughout the year as I saw areas I wanted to develop in or be exposed to and my manager fully supported me in meeting those targets.

Formal training was provided to all the placements during the first few months to aid the diffusion into a working environment. However, the most development I gained through the year was due to the work I was exposed to and this was largely down to the influence of my manager.

One of my main aims was to gain a graduate role at my placement company but, unfortunately, this does not currently look possible. Market conditions are very challenging for Cummins at the moment and it does not look like there will be a suitable role within the same department/plant for when I leave university. However, things can change, and I will continue to check as I would happily work for Cummins again.

I was fortunate enough to be able to move back home during my placement year so I was not exposed to the placement scene as much. There was a good social scene at the beginning as people became more acclimatised to the area and their new living conditions. As the year went on this, naturally, became less frequent as smaller groups formed and people began to travel home on weekends to see family etc.

Kent is not a very expensive place however could be criticised for having little to do. Many of the placements spent their weekends elsewhere due to this, however there are many different options if you do some research and find something that interests you.

The best nightlife is situated in Canterbury which is a short train journey away. Only problem is that the last train is relatively early but taxi sharing back to Thanet can be arranged for a reasonable price.

There were a few opportunities, such as a weekly game of football arranged between the placements, but other than that there was nothing that I saw that was pushed by the company.