HC Business Placement Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my year in industry at PwC. My role was varied, involved lots of travel and my work colleagues were extremely supportive. I was given lots of responsibility from the outset, and was treated as another member of staff rather than the 'placement student'. I would highly recommend PwC to anyone considering a career in business.

I felt extremely valued by my colleagues and was treated as any other member of staff within my team. I made some great friends throughout the year and always felt supported in terms of any personal development tasks / work shadowing that I was interesting in completing. I was actively encouraged to provide my opinions on how we operated as a team and completed work.

The support system at PwC is great. I had a dedicated line manager who I communicated with on a daily basis and a 'People manager' who was based in a different office to me but was focused on my development within the firm and any ways I could get more involved with other projects. My line manager changed half way through my placement year but this was not an issue, and it was interesting to see 2 different management styles.

In the team I worked in within HC the first part of the year (August-January) was very busy, and I had a high volume of work to complete. After January the workload lessened and I generally had fewer tasks to complete, however I took this chance to get involved in other projects that I was interested in. I did not find my day-to-day work overly challenging but PwC always had lots of projects going on that I could get involved in which provided me with more variety and more challenging work.

Given a high level of responsibility from the outset and was expected to manage my work volume effectively. I was treated as any other member of staff within my team and I enjoyed having to deliver work which other staff members depended on. Whilst working on projects outside of my daily responsibilities it was sometimes more difficult to get responsibility depending on who was running the project and their working style.

My placement year had very little relevance to my degree subject (Geography), however I have found that I developed soft skills which I have brought back to University with me (e.g. more confident communicator, managing datasets and priorities etc.). I also feel much more confident in working in an office environment and having to work effectively within a team.

The atmosphere within my team was fantastic, and I made some really great friends during my placement year. I generally didn't socialise with any other teams outside my own as I started my placement a month earlier than the rest of the graduates/other placement students so did not really have an organised opportunity to get to know them.

Placement was very well-organised. My team had had multiple placement students before me so understood the kind of work I may want to take on.

The firm invested in me heavily throughout the year, and any training or other project work I wanted to complete I was permitted to. Most training was on the job. Having a people manager who did not work directly within my day to day team was helpful and encouraged me to think about opportunities that I may not have otherwise.

With my placement there was no direct graduate scheme following from the placement year. I took the opportunity to explore what sorts of areas within the firm I would be interested in working in and also completed some work shadowing with the permission of my line and people manager. I have secured a graduate position in the department I was most interested in joining.

Good social scene within my direct team and I knew a couple of the other placement students based in other offices. There was a social club for the Birmingham office however I didn't know anyone who went to their events hence never attended. I think an event at the start of the year to get to know more people once all new and recent joiners have started would be a good idea.

I found Birmingham more expensive to live than expected in terms of rent and socialising (where I lived - not city centre - was about £5 for a pint). I would not be keen to live in Birmingham again.

Birmingham has lots of bars and clubs but I found it very expensive.

I knew my team well but I did not find many opportunities to get involved with any other teams/activities. The Birmingham office had some sports teams but I only heard about the netball team for girls.