Product Marketing assistant Review

I enjoyed my placement massively. I work in Product marketing which I have a passion for, so my day to day job is already enjoyable, Furthermore my team mates are outgoing and they follow the "work hard play hard" motto which means we often meet outside of work. This plus the fact that we're 40 undergards means it's very much like uni, and the opportunities in and out of work have meant that this has definitely been a great year!

I felt massively valued and I was constantly given development opportunities as they believed I was a full time member of the team. They trusted me in the work that needed to be done and at times asked for my advice on projects they were working on. We are not separated as undergrads, we are fully ingrained in the company's culture. At the end of the day, we do get as much in terms of development and perks as any other worker, so automatically we are always valued!

At the start of the year I set my objectives with my manager and have been having weekly 1 to 1's to discuss how I've been doing and gather guidance and feedback. Furthermore I can always speak to her at any time if I need support. We were also assigned with a graduate buddy, which meant I essentially had a mentor who was particularly helpful when I needed help with the graduate scheme application.

I have never felt bored in this company. There has always been things to do, people to help and projects to get involved in. This has meant that my work ethic has improved exponentially, and have learnt to be much more efficient with my workload. Prioritisation is also a skill that you learn and abide by, as often you need to push back on tasks to do the more important ones. At the end of the day however, if I ever felt like it was too much I knew I could get my colleagues help.

During my placement I was very trusted and got involved in projects which would normally be carried out by higher up workers. The responsibility I got was incredible, and any work I did I knew it was for a good reason and would be used. There were no pointless reporting or timewasting, and I was very much a part of the team. I also flew to Paris once and Barcelona twice for business, so the amount they invested in me shows how much responsibility I was given.

I am currently filling in my placement dissertation which is being quite easy and smooth given the amount I am able to write about my placement. Furthermore, as I study International Business, I'm able to apply a lot of learnings for my final year, as Volkswagen Group is a very international company, I received weekly learning and development training too. However it's all down to the skills I learnt which I will then be able to apply in the future.

Really great atmosphere given the culture of the firm!

the placement was extremely well organised, this included the following: An undergraduate welcome day before we joined to help us settle in, an undergraduate induction programme – 3 days to help us get to know the Company, understand our employee benefits, and get to grips with the undergraduate programme, as well as hearing from senior leaders and previous undergrads. A graduate buddy to help us develop our career aspirations, and better understand the graduate programme. A development portfolio to enable us to capture key learnings and highlights from the programme. And last but not least….39 real roles across the business allowing us to contribute to the success of the Group, get stuck in and add value to the teams you are working with

We had access to as much training and development as any other worker in the company. Above this, we also had: Spotlight session lunches so we could hear from other areas of the business and enhance our understanding of the wider group and some of our key partners, and 3 dedicated training courses to help us develop key skills in presenting, personal effectiveness and commercial awareness. My most valued training course was "Making an impact and influencing" qhich better developed me as a person.

You are asked to fill in an application form for the graduate scheme at the end of the year. After this, you are invited for a short interview which then can shortlist you to the assessment centre. Therefore, there is a big possibility of getting on the graduate scheme, however you have to work for this yourself and it's up to us how much we want it! Furthermore, there are plenty of roles which welcome previous undergards.

Indeed there was. we were put into a facebook group at the start and we eventually created our own Whatsapp group. This meant that from the strat we all were able to get to know each other. Furthermore, before we started, we were invited to an undergraduate welcome day before we joined to help us settle in and meet each other. Throughout the year it was was a year very similar to university!

Milton Keynes can at times be similar to London in terms of costs of living. However this can easily be avoided when sharing a house for example. I ended up paying £350 per month bills included which was very reasonable. this also meant you were living with your friends which helped! There are howver a lot of activities which were out of budget, such as skydiving and skiing in Xscape.

Milton Keynes doesn't have the best nightlife but London is only 40 minutes away

Within our team we constantly met outside of work. Whether it was for a pint or for a proper night out we got along with each other all the time, and I definitely feel like this helped especially after a long week. The group organised football matched, rounders and even full on off site reward events which really motivated the workers.