IP Finance Review

My work placement at DHL was within the Finance Team and I was given a clear progression plan at the start of the year to follow upon. The first months started on with the basics and was built up over time. This created job satisfaction when the milestones were hit and new tasks were being undertaken within the business creating a feeling of responsibility.

I worked within a direct team of 5-7 colleagues and we were a close team that worked well together. This created a good environment for development and an opportunity for me to ask questions to further develop my knowledge within the business. Within the wider DHL community there were various central events and workshops that often took place to meet up with other colleagues and keep up to date with any new requirements.

During the initial phase of my placement I was given close guidance with regular 1 2 1's which ensured I was working on track. However during the later half of the year this reduced somewhat when I was working more independently and on different tasks/projects. If I had a concern it was always easy to raise and get resolved.

This varies throughout the year and also which week in the calendar month due to accounting requirements. The first stage of the placement focussed on the basic manual process that builds the financial accounts, when I found myself completing this quickly and not being very busy this was raised with my line manager and more tasks were given out to aid development. At some points during the later stage of the year I had to be selective with certain tasks due to being very busy.

I have selected a middle rating due to the differences in responsibility in comparison to my first 6 months and the later. Once I developed and proved to the business that I could be comprehensive at doing the more complex tasks such as month end trading and weekly cost reporting it gave me more responsibility at work.

Skills for life and future work have been extremely developed and will be invaluable going forwarded. In terms of going back to university I think that aside from having a greater work drive the skills developed are more suited to the workplace than the studying environment. I am without doubt the skills will help me secure a graduate role either within DHL or elsewhere.

Always a very good atmosphere. There was rarely any negative communication and it was mostly built on a positive working environment from being constructive and supportive when something is done incorrectly than negative. At some points such as during trading it was hard-working and not much would be said however at times a good workplace laugh could also be had.

I was one of the first Finance placement students at DHL however this would not have been guessed. There was a structured programme from the Placement Team which included 4 Core Modules that built upon our soft skills and also kept us in touch with our other placement colleagues. At site level I had development plans and training programmes to follow at all times throughout the year, especially during the early days.

I attended a great deal of extra training sessions within the business that was pushed upon me from my line manager. This includes Excel courses, system trainings, internal DHL modules such as presentation skills, conflict management and managerial traits which will all help in future roles when undertaking a more senior role within a business.

I am hoping to gain a place on the DHL Graduate scheme which has a programme set up specially for those wishing to work within the finance department. This is a 3 year course and also takes one through their professional examinations such as CIMA or ACCA which will be very valuable to get done as soon as possible.

All placement colleagues got along really well however due to the location of everyone's roles we only ever met up when there was one of the structured core training modules that the team had set up for us. This is primarily due to roles being based all over the UK.

I lived at home throughout my placement year as DHL were able to find a location that was close enough not to have to move into rented accommodation. This was not the case for all colleagues and is purely subject to availability's within the business sites at the time of employment.

Bedford has an ok nightlife however as stated this is my hometown so it was nothing different to me. There are a selection of bars/clubs and music venues in the town. DHL can base a colleague anywhere which all of course will have different nightlife's. Most locations are never in the town centre due to the nature of the business better suited to be near the major rods.

This was not overly pushed due to being within a small team. The site was based close to the M1 which meant it was away from towns and activities to do post work with colleagues. This would be hard to improve within DHL due to the businesses locations and business model.