Business Engagement Communications Executive Review

I started the placement with a positive attitude but throughout the placement I really struggled to enjoy it. It wasn't the workload but more so the lack of respect my team had for me and how they didn't make me feel welcome or host a welcome lunch (which other new employees in the company received). Overall my experience was not good at all and I developed anxiety from the whole experience.

From the team I was in, I didn't feel valued at all. This was from the lack of tasks allocated to me, lack of involvement I had, didn't involve me in relevant meetings. I was always given work that didn't seem to go anywhere. However, stakeholders outside of my team were brilliant! They really valued my help and work and treated me like a full time member of staff, valued my opinion and always gave positive feedback.

This was one of my main issues at work. I wasn't given a clear plan, clear expectations, clear day to day roles. I flagged to my line manager how unhappy I was at work and I felt anxious within the team, I received no support from this. I flagged this multiple times and nothing ever came of it and no improvements were made, no plans were put in place, the meetings I arranged with my manager were pushed back multiple times as he didn't see this as a priority. I was blamed for the way I felt at work and therefore throughout my placement year I felt extremely uncomfortable everyday at work with an extremely unsupportive manager.

Some days I wasn't that busy and was assigned the task of doing research into potential new businesses or I was helping other teams with their projects. Other times I'd be working 9-10pm including weekends as we will have a tight deadline to meet. In terms of being busy, it came in peaks and troughs.

Through our busy periods, I was given a decent amount of responsibility as what I produced was presented to large corporates at director level, so any mistake made in the work I produced would jeopardise the whole pitch or relationship we might have already had with the client. In that sense, I liked the level of pressure and responsibility I was given during these times.

Despite the whole experience not being what I thought it would turn out to be, I can confidently say that the main skill I have taken from my placement would be commitment and a hard working ethic. It's taught me how to keep grafting and the more you put into something, the more you get out. I also gained a lot of knowledge about the corporate sphere and how large corporates operated. I learnt the internal processes that took place at Bupa which was interesting as it wasn't what I expected.

The general atmosphere I'd say was good, this was mainly because of the other teams in the office that made it a nice office to come into despite my anxiety at the time. My team didn't create a good atmosphere but other members of staff certainly did - one good thing about Bupa was how they encouraged exercise, walks around the quays at lunch and mindfulness.

Despite them having had work placement students for the past 3/4 years in the team, I can safely say that it wasn't organised and thought through at all. It was more like here's a list of things to do, just do it. There was no consideration about my learning and development and experience there. Placements should be mutually beneficial relationships where the employer gains insight from an outsiders perspective from a completely different demographic, and the student should receive guidance and support to help them grow and flourish, whilst gaining real life experience in the industry. This wasn't the case.

They didn't invest anything into my learning and development. This wasn't even discussed in the sporadic meetings I had with my manager at the time, I had to put this on the agenda but still nothing changed. I wanted to shadow other departments to see how they operate and what they do, and even work for them for a few days so I had another skill set under my belt. I was promised from day 1 that this is completely fine and I could work with other teams during our quiet periods. I was then refused to do this as 'it didn't benefit the team'. This was vital experience I would've loved to have but instead was made false promises and my learning and development seemed to be at the top of my managers list of priorities.

As I have maintained relationships with other teams in the organisation, I could potentially see myself working there in the future but ensuring that I work in a completely different team to the one I was in previously. I have even been offered jobs in other teams when I finish University so I may considerate but nothing certain yet.

As there were no other placement students in my team, the department or the Manchester site, I didn't have much of a social life in that respect. The team would sometimes organise social events offsite to discuss big upcoming projects, or just to unwind together after a busy month. However, a few of those I wasn't invited to which deterred me from attending other social events in the future. The big Christmas do I attended though was fantastic!

The cost of living was expensive and I would argue that in order to live in Manchester, travel to work, pay bills, and have a social life - it was difficult to do so on the salary I was given. It would've been fine it wasn't such a major city like Manchester but cost of living was expensive.

The nightlife in Manchester was great! Literally so much to do, day and night. You can go on so many different kinds of nights out in Manchester. It's probably the biggest and best city with loads to offer, outside of London. Even for a few drinks after work, Media City was great.

There were a fair few opportunities to get involved with, for example: tough mudder, sports teams, fund raising events for charities etc. I'd say there were always emails flying about with activities going on.