Research Assistant Review

I have really enjoyed my placement at the Bank of England. I worked in the Monetary Analysis division, so used a lot of the Economics from my degree. Everyone in my team was friendly and welcoming, as well as the rest of the staff who were working in the Bank.

I felt quite valued by my colleagues, who were welcoming and made me feel included. I felt as though the work I did to assist my colleagues was important and added value to the work produced by the team. I was always included in team activities and meetings and my opinion was always listened to.

I felt very supported by my manager, as well as the rest of the team. My manager was always approachable and I had weekly meetings with them to discuss issues, which gave them the chance to offer guidance and support on the work I was doing. The rest of my team were also available to supervise on issues I had.

I feel I had the perfect amount of work to do on a daily basis, it was rarely stressful and there were never days when I had nothing to do. Sometimes there were periods that were quieter, and when this happened I was offered opportunities to get involved in new work and projects.

I felt the work I was doing during my placement was important and I was responsible for quite a few processes in my division, and if I didn't do the work I was doing, the division wouldn't run as smoothly and the same quality of outputs could not be produced.

During my placement I have developed a lot of excel skills, something I hadn't much experience with before my placement. I think these will be useful for the final year of my degree and for employment in the future, as excel is the basis programme in a number of companies.

The general atmosphere in my office was nice - my team were friendly and often had chats in the mornings, discussing their evenings and weekends. However when it was a busy time, everyone was focused and understood when others needed quiet in order to focus. This was my first experience of working in an office and I really enjoyed it.

I felt the work placement was very organised. The placement role had been going for quite a few years in the team I was in, so the team all had experience of working with a placement student and the level of work that could be offered to me, and what I could get involved in.

At the start of the placement, all the placement students were offered a 2 day induction, which included Excel training and detailed use of the computer system. Training was then offered online, and students had to complete a number of programmes during the first month of their placement to get up to scratch. Courses were also offered for free in areas such as Word, Excel, drafting and writing.

I am aiming to apply for a graduate job within the company, but I don't find out if I have received it until the end of August, after the end of my placement. The options to apply for a graduate role were made clear throughout the year, so we had time to prepare and think about areas to apply into.

There was a good social scene among fellow placement students - weekly drinks were held and most students ate in the canteen, so you could sit together at lunchtime. In my team, we often had lunch together and drinks at the end of busy periods. We also had away days every 3 months, to do a team bonding experience.