Women in Business Placement Review

by PwC

Best Student Employer

This review was submitted over 4 years ago, so some of the information it contains may no longer be relevant.

Rating

2.9/5
  • About You
    2.9
  • The Company
    2.8
  • Everything Else
    3.0

    About You

  • 1. To what extent did you enjoy the insight?
  • Overall the experience was very enjoyable. The people who I worked with were all lovely and very keen for me to get involved and help out. I really felt like part of a team, although unfortunately due to poor planning by the company I was with a different team every day rather than with one for the whole week. This also meant every day was a bit of a struggle trying to work out my plans for the next day, and thus this is why I am not giving a higher rating than 7. Nevertheless it was a wonderful week, and I met some great people.

    4/5

  • 2. To what extent did you feel valued during your time at the company or firm?
  • The people who I worked with really seemed to appreciate my contributions and I felt that they were happy to have me around. I felt I genuinely helped with certain projects also. Nevertheless due to the fact I was moving around everyday, often I felt all I was doing was sitting around without being able to really contribute. This was frustrating as I had only one week and really wanted to get involved. Furthermore I felt very undervalued by the team who were supposed to be looking after me logistically, it was impossible to get ahold of them and I felt very unimportant. Further to this, I feel all the great work that I did do during the week was completely undermined by my final interview, where what I had spent the week doing was completely ignored and not taken into consideration.

    3/5

  • 3. How much guidance/support did you receive during the insight?
  • From the people who were looking after me each day I was very well supported. They were really wonderful, always answering my questions and making sure I had everything I needed, which was wonderful. However sadly once again, I was let down my the team who were supposed to be organising my week. I found it impossible to get ahold of anyone before my internship when my paperwork hadn't been processed, during the week I was being moved around constantly as the person I was supposed to be shadowing for the entire scheme was actually on annual leave (something only realised when I arrived in the morning to start my scheme), and after the scheme when trying to obtain payment and feedback I was not supported at all. Sadly this put a shadow on how great the people I actually worked with were.

    3/5

  • 4. To what extent did/will the skills you developed, and information you received, assist you in your degree studies and beyond?
  • A week is a very short time to develop skills, however I definitely help it gave me a great insight into management consultancy. Overall as well I learnt about corporate life, and gained some self awareness and developed my communication skills. Whilst these may not be that useful for my degree specifically, they are useful skills for beyond. Furthermore it gave me an insight into the working world.

    3/5

    The Company

  • 5. How well structured was the insight?
  • Sadly, this was the main flaw of the programme. Firstly, when I was trying to arrange the timing for the week it was almost impossible to get ahold of anybody, meaning I was signing contracts only days before I was supposed to start. I was supposed to be shadowing one mentor for the whole week, and was given her name a few days before my programme would start. However when I arrived she was no where to be found, and only at midday on my first day was it discovered she was actually on annual leave for the whole week! This was very poor, and meant that everyday I was with a different person. Whilst this did give me a nice insight into different aspects of consulting, it meant I could never really get that involved because the first few hours of everyday were spent trying to understand that project. Further to this I only found out my interview would be on my final day two days before, giving me very little time to prepare. Following the programme I didn't get feedback from my interview for over a month, when I was told it would be 48 hours. It then took over 2 months for me to be paid, because there was a mistake in the system. Not only were both of these aspects frustrating, but I had a lot of difficulty getting ahold of anyone in the company who could help me for a very long time, sending endless emails, and making many phone calls.

    1/5

  • 6. How was the general atmosphere during your insight?
  • The general atmosphere was great. Everyone in the company seemed very happy to be there, and very happy for me to be there, I was quickly welcomed into every team that I was part of. People were always happy to help, and to answer questions. People seemed to really enjoy what they were doing, especially the mix of different projects that they were working on.

    4/5

  • 7. In terms of personal training and development, to what extent did the company or firm invest in you?
  • 3/5

  • 8. To what extent did the insight help you to understand what it would be like to have a full time role with the company or firm?
  • The insight gave me a really great understanding of how the company worked, and what working there seemed to be like. Of course it is very different to be working somewhere full time, but nevertheless, working directly with projects meant I really got a feel for the company and the type of work they do, which was fascinating.

    4/5

  • 9. How much did the insight help you in understanding the company culture?
  • I think that I learnt quite a lot about the company culture. I spent a lot of time with different people and began to understand how the nature of the company worked, and what people valued. Nevertheless the only reason I would not give this a higher rating is just because the insight is only in one area of the firm, it meant I only got an insight into the culture of that specific area, not the company as a whole perhaps.

    3/5

  • 10. How valuable was the content in helping you to decide on your future career path?
  • The insight was very helpful. I really felt it gave me an understanding of how the business area works, and encouraged me to believe that it is something I could enjoy. I still want to try other types of work experience, in different areas in order to make a full comparison, but the week definitely made me feel like this was a career path I could pursue.

    3/5

    Everything Else

  • 11. Were you paid or reimbursed adequately for this experience?
  • I was paid well for this experience, although as was mentioned previously it was a large hassle to actually get paid. Nevertheless it was very well paid for one weeks work. However I was not reimbursed for expenses which I understand, but was frustrating as transport into a London firm at peak travel time is very expensive. Nevertheless it was great to have a paid experience, as often it is very hard to find a paid experience that is only one week long.


  • 12. Were there opportunities for networking and meeting other employees of the company or firm?
  • Networking was one thing which the company were great at. I am particularly interesting in sustainability but was not working in this area, however everyone I told this was very happy to put me in touch with people they knew in this area. I meant 3 people in the area, which allowed me to gain a lot of specific information, and everyone was always very happy to talk and share their knowledge which was wonderful.

    4/5

  • 13. How were the networking/ social event opportunities?
  • 3/5

  • 14. Did you find out about activities that employees can get involved in outside of work?
  • There seemed to be a lot of activities that people could get involved with, all of which seemed like great fun! They had language classes, sports team, and volunteering work. Everyone who was involved with them seemed to really love them, and I met quite a few people who each gave me different insights into what they do. I am sure there were even more activities that I never heard about! This seemed like a really wonderful side of the company.

    4/5

  • 15. Would you recommend this insight to a friend?
  • Whilst I am still glad I did the insight as I learnt a lot about the company, and it is always great to get any type of experience, I am not sure I would recommend it. It is a new programme which I feel had a lot of things which had to be ironed out of it, and could potentially be really great in the future, but definitely has some things which need a lot of improvement, specifically the organisation of the programme.

    2/5

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Details

Insight / Vacation Scheme (< 4 Weeks)

London

September 2016


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