Placement Student Review

After a slower initial training period, where I learned the core consulting skills necessary for the role, I was then given real responsibility which meant that the work was really fulfilling for the majority of my placement. This, combined with opportunities to travel and numerous development opportunities where I was able to attend courses and workshops meant that the placement was a really positive experience.

From day one, I was made to feel part of the local office community and was invited to lots of social events such as after work drinks, charity events and office-wide parties. On top of this, despite the geographical distance between myself and the majority of my project team, I was made to feel valuable as I was given key roles within the team and invited to travel over to London to meet with them regularly.

All of my colleagues, from associates through to directors and partners were always incredibly kind and supportive throughout my placement. Even in the early stages, where I was asking very basic questions, managers and supervisors would always make time to offer assistance and guide me through tasks, which meant that I was able to develop hugely and take a lot from my placement.

There were times at the beginning of the placement where I did not have much work but as I became competent in my role and was able to fully manage my own workload, the work picked up to the extent that there was rarely a quiet day. There were also periods where significant overtime was necessary in order to keep up with client demands, however this did not go unrecognised and was rewarded with more flexible hours at other times.

Once I had got up to speed with the ways of working and relevant consulting skills, my team was able to make me responsible for a number of crucial roles on the programme, which were really important for the day-to-day functions of the individual projects to take place. As a result, I felt that I was a really important member of the team and further, the work was much more fulfilling as it really made a difference.

Some of the hard skills such as excel and microsoft project will have immediate carry over into my university work and for when I start a graduate job. However it is the soft skills such as (self) leadership, team working, business acumen, relationship management and many more which I feel will make a real difference in all aspects of my life going forwards.

My home office could get pretty quiet at times, due to the fact that the majority of the consultants worked away on client sites during the week. This meant that I could often go from Monday to Thursday without seeing a single colleague that I knew. However, when colleagues were in, especially on Fridays, the office had a really fun and friendly atmosphere.

In terms of letting placement students fully experience life at PwC, the placement works really well as you are treated just like a full time employee of the company. Communication from the student recruitment team was also regular, and you always knew who to talk to if you had a problem. However, there was no formal training given at the start of the placement, which was a bit disappointing and left you feeling like you were in at the deep end when you start.

As a placement student, I did not expect to have as much access to the training and development as I did. On numerous occasions, I was allowed to travel to London and stay overnight to take part in training courses and team building days. This was really encouraging and made me feel that PwC really valued me, even though I was only a temporary placement student.

If you want to work in the same location as you complete a placement, then they make it very easy for you to be offered a graduate role. If, however, you would like to work in a different location, there is a long process which needs to be followed in order to transfer, which involves rejecting an offer of employment from your original office and brings into question whether your experience and references from colleagues are really valued. This process should in theory be alright but poor communication throughout has made it thoroughly unpleasant.

This may be a phenomenon local to Belfast but the majority of placement students were living at home and as such were not really willing to take part in social activities. Of those who were not living at home, we had a small group and had a lot of fun throughout the year. In terms of wider colleagues, they were always really friendly and invited me to every event, regardless of who was going, which was really nice!

Rent in Belfast is really cheap, myself and another placement student lived in a really nice flat in the centre of the city for a very reasonable monthly rate. In terms of other costs of living, they were not too dissimilar to the North of England, and despite a low wage, neither of us struggled.

Belfast has a really good nightlife scene, with a number of popular nightclubs in the city centre and lots of really nice bars and pubs. There are regularly big name DJs playing and a growing really popular dance music festival held there every summer, along with open air events throughout the summer.

The Belfast office runs a number of charity and volunteering events throughout the year. During my placement, I took part in a charity white collar boxing event, which encompassed 10 weeks of training at a proper boxing club and then a huge fight night, which was attended by well over 1000 people.