Communications and Engagement Analyst Review

I enjoyed it for the most part, my role is always varied and provides a number of challenges. As my first role in work it was challenging to get used to working in an office environment, but I've taken on a lot of responsibility and gotten better and producing and managing it as the year has gone on.

A lot of my work goes out into the division and the Bank as a whole, so I frequently have people commenting around something that I have produced, normally well. Due to my role I always get lots of requests for work, and whether it's people's knowledge's of communications or not, they are highly appreciated.

I was given plenty of support by my line manager, and senior manager. I have weekly catch ups with my manager, and talk to her around a number of projects. I also have a monthly 1-2-1 with my manager and regular catch up with my senior manager to assess my process, give me suggestions for the future, and act as a place to air any grievances

I very rarely had a day without any meetings or deadlines coming up. The amount of flexi time I have accrued has continued to go up, and I don't remember the last time that I did less than my full week's hours. Unless there is an event it's not too stressful but there is always plenty to do

I was given a lot of responsibility across my placement year. The role I have has grown from the person I replaced, and that coupled with my manager being promoted and taking on more responsibility, meant that I did the same. People are generally surprised when they find out I'm on placement if they know what I do.

Some skills that I've learnt like improving my written communication and work ethic/productivity will be very useful to take into my degree and the world after. There are also presentation skills and document building skills that will be useful going forwards. In general the knowledge learnt, and producing Bank only documents will not be that useful going fowards

My team is quite collaborative and chat a bit, but there is not a great deal of noise in the group as we are all always pretty busy. Our team is also split up in terms of the desks that we sit in, which makes conversation and team bonding a bit tougher

I had a month handover from my previous placement student, which was useful for handing over all of his responsibilities. However, a lot of things have changed from what he did to what I am doing now, and therefore it was more learning on the job than having things told to me at the start

The company does offer a number of internal training and courses, everyone can sign up to as much or as little as they want. I have also had total support to sign up for external training and seminars, within reason. A lot of the time I have not been able to go through with these due to workload constrictions

If we succeed in getting a decent final year review score, we are pretty much guaranteed to be in for getting a graduate role, so there is a great opening to be considered for future employment. The area of where we go in to is limited by the intake but a job is still there to be had

The organisation brought the group of us together briefly, but there are 35 placement students and that's too much to get a proper group together. I do regularly socialise with 10 or so placement students (lunches or after work drinks etc) which works out really well, and has been a big plus of placement.

Living in London is generally quite expensive, I live in a relatively cheap area but it still costs a lot. Socialising around central London is also very expensive no matter what you do, but that is more a fault of the city than that of the organisation. There are plenty of opportunities around

There are a number of restaurants, pubs, bars and general nightlife places to go around the office. There are over two dozen pubs within about 5 mins walk, which shows the diversity of choice that you have. A number of them are closely linked to the Bank and offer deals as well

There were opportunities to be involved in a couple clubs based out of work (various sports, music etc) but these were not very diverse or in depth. There are a number of activities to do around London, however I struggled to commit enough time to them during the week to be a regular.