Analyst / Developer Review

I have really enjoyed my year at Vauxhall. The placement was very well organised. Vauxhall has helped me to find an accommodation and has provided a handover schedule where previous undergraduates provided a structured handover. On top of this 2 weeks of social activities also take place with visits, to clubs, bars and a mix of different activities. After the handover period we are all given time to settle in and completely learn the position. There was a lot to learn and take in from both in terms of the organisation as well as job-specifics, but ultimately it is an extremely rewarding experience, one that will provide you with a large variety of experiences and skills.

I believe I have settled in well and have been treated as a full time employee from the beginning. This is true for the rest of the undergraduates as we are informed from the very beginning that we will be treated as a full time employee and be given a real position with real responsibilities. It is good to be valued as a full time employee as this is how you learn the most. If you do something right it will be appreciated and if you do something incorrectly, it will be explained on where you have went wrong and what can be done to fix it.

Over the course of the year I have had two managers; one from the business side and one from the system side. I have been given all the support that I needed from both the non-technical and technical side of the position. It was never an issue to ask; instead it was encouraged. It was encouraged to ask questions whenever required but at the same time to provide your thoughts to the problem faced. Instead of just being told I was more guided towards the solution and I believe this way I have learnt much more.

There were times when the job got extremely busy and times where projects were at a standstill. However, it was never an issue. At times of high number of projects, we had regular meetings where we managed work items between our internal team to ensure everything gets done on time. At times of less projects, I had handover documents to edit and general system maintenance to ensure everything is organised. Overall, we as a team ensured to stick to a specific project methodology and meet internally set deadlines to leave time for proper testing and implementation.

I have had real responsibility over the year. I was working with a global system which process a high number of documents. Any changes made to the systems internal processes have a very real effect on end users. With real responsibility you really know that what you work on is critical. This is why we had Pre Production to ensure changes were properly tested prior to implementation. My manager reviewed most changes to ensure they are done correctly, especially on more critical projects. Overall it's not a full responsibility but the changes I worked on had very real effects on the global system.

It would be impossible to describe the huge variety of skills gained from my year with Vauxhall. The nature of he job meant that I had a great opportunity to work through a whole lifecycle of projects from the initial requirement gathering, development, testing and implementation. This covers a wide variety of highly transferrable skills. These include the entire process, project management, documentation and a number of technical skills such as programming, web development, specific tools, server management and configuration files. The role involved a large variety of communication methods. Emails, instant messaging, calls and video conferences just to name a few. These have drastically increased my confidence and my communication skills. Vauxhall also provides a number of training including Presentation training and I was also required to present multiple times, which was another skill I wanted to improve on.

Technology has a separate building with just over 100 employees. The atmosphere is general good. You do get great discussions/interaction from your colleagues and you also got all the technology placement students by your side. On top of the restaurant, there is a kitchen area in the office and a lounge area for informal meetings amongst your colleagues.

No complaints at all. Vauxhall helps you find affordable accommodation close to the offices and provides a two week social activities. On top of this you will have a number of weeks of handover from previous undergraduates who would have prepared you presentations and handover documents to follow over the course of the year. There is also regular social activities over the year from Vauxhall or IT specific nights out/sport days, as well as undergraduate activities.

A variety of trainings are provided including presentation, security, communication amongst others. There is also online training courses to take over the year which are specific to Vauxhall which aid in your overall development. We also had student meetings where specific tasks are given to learn a variety of additional things. These can be anything from interviewing senior employees to presenting.

This is a slightly negative point in working here. Vauxhall does take back undergraduates and I have seen a few taken back from last year, but overall it's around 10% take back rate. There is a possibility that this will change due to the PSA transition but no specifics are given and I rather rate the current situation. However, working having Vauxhall on your CV is still very appealing to other employees so there is definitely a positive from that side.

Great initial 2 weeks of activities and regular activities after. The social activities got less and less frequent over the year, but they do tend to pick up again near the end. You will most likely be living with other undergraduates over the year and work on regular basis with some of them, so there is a good opportunity to form friendship.

If you manage to sign one of the Vauxhall provided houses then you will get a really good deal. I pay less than £350 a month including bills. You have a bunch of supermarkets nearby with the usual prices including Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury's amongst others. Drink prices are decent in pubs also with Weatherspoons and Yates around the corner.

Nightlife could be a lot better. In Luton there is only a handful of small clubs and pubs including Yates and Weatherspoons. However better nights out are only a short train ride away including St Albans and Harpenden. London is less than 40 minutes on the train too and there will be plenty of opportunities to visit.

There is charity days. You can take part in 2 charity events across the year and these can be a range of activities aiding local charities. There is also regular deals on other types of activities such as tickets to games, gokart, restaurant visits, school/university visits, assessment day activities and car events. The number of activates definitively mean that I was not able to do a number of them, but had a chance to participate in a fair few.