Attendee of Aspire Brightstart work experience Review

I enjoyed it thoroughly as it gave me an insight into many details of the World of Work such as the working hours and some of the case studies we did really taught us what it would be like to be working with Deloitte and the type of skills that would be important and necessary to do the job correctly.

We were made to feel as close to real employees as possible in terms of how we were treated and the case studies we were given. This made us feel valued as the employees we were meeting we very knowledgeable about their respective fields and being compared to them was very humbling.

We received an appropriate amount of guidance so that we were able to tackle all the challenges we faced on our own at first but if we were stumped and didn't have any clue helpful employees were able to give us a few tips to help us out and we were usually able to find our way from there.

The skills I learnt on this placement will certainly help me a great deal. Skills such as negotiation, presentation, teamwork and leadership are definitely skills I will carry forward with me when I'm in other formal or business situations like a job interview, performing a public speech or working on a project in a team.

The insight had a pretty good structure with a good timetable we were able to follow easily throughout the week. The timetable included a wide variety of activities that both gave us skills and tested them. Unfortunately, a networking lunch that was planned for us to network with employees from Deloitte didn't come to fruition.

The atmosphere was pretty good as far I know everyone enjoyed themselves and learnt a lot from the experience

Deloitte put a lot of resources into the placement which again made us feel valued. They also had a lot of visitors in which gave their experience within Deloitte and outside visitors who gave us some tips to improve skills and qualities like presentation and negotiation.

The case studies we did on tax, audit and a big one acting as a consultancy firm helped us to understand the tasks and projects employees would have to undertake when working with Deloitte. Also having employees come in and describe their jobs and what they do within the business gave us a further insight into the life of a Deloitte employee.

We got a bit of information about the corporate culture from the employees that we met and with us getting the knowledge that there is a casual dress day on Friday which showed us there was a somewhat relaxed feel about the business but my understanding of the corporate culture didn't go too far beyond that.

It helped me a lot as it opened up new career paths that I didn't even know existed before the placement and has made me become interested in potential career paths that I discovered through this placement. It has driven me to do some research of my own into these professions.

Travel expenses up to £100 were reimbursed.

Even though the main opportunity for networking, an hour and a half long networking lunch fell through we were still able to network well with employees in later activities. The case studies I mentioned earlier had employees helping us so it was a good time to ask them questions when we weren't focusing on the activity

When employees came in to help us with case studies we got to ask them questions relating to their jobs, education and even what they do in their free time which gave me a good insight into what the life of a Deloitte employee was like. However, it was a shame that there were no activities dedicated to networking with employees. Lunch was good for networking with others on the placement though.

We found out that there are plenty of social events for employees to take part in such as work nights out and dinners along with more unorthodox things like going ten-pin bowling.

I definitely would as I gained a lot of knowledge on potential career opportunities and an idea of what it is like working for Deloitte and how to deal with the World of Work in general.