Digital Performance Management Intern Review

I really enjoyed my 12 month work placement and has been the best work experience I have had so far. I met and became friends with amazing colleagues. I was exposed to a range of projects and experiences that are invaluable to my career development. I would highly recommend any student to apply for a placement year.

I felt extremely valued by my colleagues, which made the transition to a new city a great experience. I was able to make friends with my fellow colleagues within and outside of my department. They made sure I was involved with projects and provided guidance and support from day one.

If I ever had any queries or issues any of the senior managers in the office were willing to dedicate time to support and provide me with guidance. I had two managers/supervisors as I had moved to another department from my original role. In result, I had two separate weekly meetings, where each manager would check up on my progress and any issues work and non-work related.

At the beginning of my placement the first 2 weeks were very slow. As the laptop that was assigned to me hadn't been delivered to the office yet. It was delivered after the first week and is apparently a common issue with new starters. Once I had my laptop work started to pick up slowly. After a month my average day was pretty busy.

At the beginning of my placement I didn't have much responsibility. As I was being introduced to the technicalities and the business processes within the sector I was working. This being the Subsea Oil Field Equipment sector for Baker Hughes, a GE company. After a week, I gradually started to understand the terminology used within meetings and the position of companies projects, processes and what projects I could get involved in. I was able to move to the DT (Digital Technology) section of the office after being asked to help work on a document management system called Oracle's Primavera Unifier.

My placement and my 1st and 2nd Year degree modules intertwined so much that I referred back to my lecture notes on a regular basis while working on projects and occasionally for daily tasks. As I study Management and Information Technology, I was able to experience working with the Business Management Office and the Digital Technology Team on various projects. Allowing me to develop my skills within both the business environment, project management and IT. In addition, myself and the other interns were sent to complete various workshop events on subjects such as Six Sigma and team building activities.

The general atmosphere in my office was pretty busy at times but general communication and interactions were relaxed. Everyone is welcoming and fun to chat to especially when the office can seem a bit tense or stressed. The office layout is all open plan so communication within departments is flowing and team work is encouraged. This also allows other departments to communicate. We also had a small community of interns working between two offices in Bristol. This made for a good social life in and out of work.

My experience with the overall organisation of my work placement wasn't as well organised as I had expected. I mainly feel this as I had pretty slow start to my placement, however, once I had done a bit of networking within the office I was able to gather a lot more tasks and projects to work within.

The future employment prospects within this organisation is very encouraging as they recommend interns to apply for their graduate scheme programs. These programs are very attractive as they are well paid, include lots of travelling and expenses paid. This is something I will definitely be applying for in the future.

Within my office there was a very good social scene amongst the fellow placement students. There was a good mix of sandwich year students and graduates interning in the office. There were around 10 working in my office and about 9 others working in the other office in Bristol. The average day would result in numerous games of pool at lunch time and a few socials each weekend.

There were many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work, such as weekly 5-a-side football matches. In addition, there were many opportunities to do voluntary work. I was able to volunteer at local hospices, charity runs, cake sales and bake offs. This is a great way to give back to the local community.