Marketing Assistant Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement at 3M. The atmosphere around 3M is really friendly and being in the same office with the other placement students is really fun! I have learnt a lot and have felt that my skills and knowledge in marketing has really improved. However, I think that to enjoy your placement you really need to get stuck in from the start and say yes to every opportunity you're given!

Extremely, at 3M you are treated like a member of the team rather than a student. I was invited to all team meetings from the beginning and was always encouraged to give my opinion even though I had less experience in the market. My team members were always willing to support me when I needed it.

I had 1:1 meetings booked with my manager ever month to renew my progress and any problems that I faced. Towards the start of my placement, I was given more guidance and support but after a month or so, I was able to start making key decisions and prioritise my work to what I thought was best.

When I first started at 3M I was given easy and relatively quick tasks to help me settle in. However, I found that I was completing these quite quickly therefore I started asking my managers for more work. I then got involved and started to lead my own projects which continued throughout the year. There was days where I had too much work but I found this beneficial as I was able to prioritise and really work on my organisation and time keeping skills.

A great deal. I can already see an improvement in my university assignments that I completed this year. My communication, presenting and organisation skills are much stronger but I also have a greater understanding of marketing and am able to link this with the theory I learnt/will learn at university.

The general atmosphere is very friendly and pleasant ! Even though the 3M office is really big it still maintains an enthusiastic and welcoming atmosphere. There is a Starbucks and a lounge where you can socialise or work in a more relaxed environment than your desk or meeting rooms, which is great.

The HR department are great at enrolling you into 3M. They organise days at the beginning where you are able to find out more about 3M from other employees, visit the Customer Innovation Centre and see 3M's products in actions and meet the other placement students and graduates from other sites. The only improvement I would say is that I didn't have a student before me to give a handover which I think I would have benefitted from.

A lot - all Industrial Placement students completed a course at 3M during their placement to enhance their personal development. We were given advise on presentations, Linked In, careers and personal brand. Also, 3M organises many talks internally and externally which students can attend during lunchtimes and afternoons.