People Co-ordinator Review

World First have been so supportive of my development during my placement scheme. I have gained some key skills and made some great friends along the way. The culture fitted my personality perfectly and always felt welcomed wherever I was in the business. The role was really fulfilling and I was always encouraged to bring my ideas to the company.

My team made me feel welcomed from day one, taking me out for lunch and helping me organised some shadowing sessions early on in my placement. They were always willing to answer my questions and include me on any projects they were working on. I always felt that I was being treated like a colleague on equal grounds.

We had catch up meetings every week, which involved discussing the work I was doing and long-term projects I was helping on. During these meetings they offered a lot of support by giving advice or connecting myself with other people in the business who could help me. I had an outline of the goals I wanted to achieve for my placement, which my team always supported me on.

I had a steady workload which kept me busy. If there were times I had nothing to do, I would try and work on my own projects and ideas. World First were really encouraging of my ideas and would always help support their development. . I would always encourage future placement students to voice their ideas and to try and keep themselves active in the business.

For a student role, I was given a lot of responsibility. This varied from handling employee data to sending important emails. But I never felt out of my depth; my team provided good training and they always provided support when needed. It was great to be treated fairly, I never felt that I wasn’t being included in something because I was a student.

I have learnt a variety skills during my time a World First which will help me in future roles and at university. Some of the crucial skills I have gained include IT skills, people management and project planning. Understanding how to get the best out people and then planning projects accordingly, will improve my chances of working in a successful team.

The atmosphere can vary between the different floors at WorldFirst, but for positive reasons. The 4th and 10th is always friendly and welcoming, the 11th has a great buzzing atmosphere and the 24th is extremely creative and fun. Wherever you are in the business, people are always smiling and laughing.

The student who was in my role previously, had pre-planned my first two weeks at WorldFirst really well. I had meetings with everyone in my team pre-arranged, I had suggestions for teams to go and shadow and all my IT access was already in place. My manager had a clear plan for my development and a set of goals I wanted to achieve.

I was invited to team workshops regularly, for example we went to a HR does tech event which taught us about coding. These workshops were a great insight into different skills I could learn and develop within my role, plus it was a great opportunity to network with other people in my role. Internally, I had to reach out to teams myself in order to create the opportunity to experience some training.

WorldFirst is a fast growing company and is gaining popularity, so I believe there will be even more employment opportunities in the future. Furthermore, having a global presence will mean there will be lots of employment opportunities all over the world. We have offices in Asia, the US, Australia and Europe with plans to expand even further.

The social team at WorldFirst put on lots of fun events for everyone. For example, we enjoyed some friendly company competition at Flight club and the Christmas Party was a huge amount of fun. Every Friday we would have company drinks at 4:30 in the office, which was a great way to end the week.

From coming from a university outside of London, it took a while to get used to normal ‘non-student prices’ again. Everyone knows London is an expensive area to live so if you’re thinking of living near work be prepared to spend lots. Likewise, commuting from outside London can be expensive as well. I had to pay a crazy amount for my season ticket, but luckily WorldFirst has travel loan scheme which helped pay off my season ticket.

The nightlife, while expensive, is amazing in London. We were located in a good area are so we were close to lot of good places to go out in. Hundreds of bars and clubs to choose from and there was always something happening. Likewise, if you’re not into clubs there are loads of pubs nearby which are great.

I played football with my colleagues at WorldFirst every week which was a lot of fun. It was a great way to get my football fix and meet new people, moreover it was free as WorldFirst paid for the facilities nearby. I joined the local gym nearby as well, which had a really good student discount, so was able to go exercise sometimes during my lunch break.