Sourcing Specialist Review

I had a very enjoyable experience at Cummins right from the first day up until my last. All my colleagues made me feel very welcome and we often organised social events to help improve my overall enjoyment throughout the year. Cummins is a fun and interesting place to work whilst also providing a good challenge for placement students.

Overall I felt very valued by my colleagues throughout the placement. Many of them relied on the work I was doing for their own jobs, and this level of responsibility I was given certainly helped me feel highly valued within the office. My colleagues appreciated hard work and so long as I pulled my weight they would regard me as though I was a full time employee and not a placement student.

During my placement I worked within a small team, but I could always rely on any of them to help me out when I faced a problem. They were particularly understanding at the start of my placement when I was still learning on the job. Ultimately I always had my direct manager to go to for help and he was always willing to give up some time to talk with me about such issues.

I was given tasks to do by members of my own team as well as colleagues from all around the world including the USA and China. This meant new work and challenges would come up every day and keep me busy. Nevertheless I still had time to explore other areas of interest in Cummins not related to my particular job role.

I had high levels of responsibility as part of my job role, with many other colleagues depending on the work I was doing. Cummins tries to treat its placement students as though they were full time employees, demonstrated by the high levels of responsibility in the job roles. This allows unhindered professional development throughout the year for the placement students.

I developed my team working skills as I was very often involved in team exercises. I learnt how to operate and communicate effectively within a team environment and even got some chances to lead others. This will help me in any future job roles which may involve teamwork. I also developed my time and personal management skills whilst on placement on order to be able to complete all the work I was asked to do. This will be beneficial when planning my work schedule for university next year, making me more organised.

My office was a very nice environment to work in, I was made to feel very welcome when I arrived and there was always a positive atmosphere. There was a good balance between being a hard working and an enjoyable atmosphere. The office itself was always kept very clean and had sufficient facilities available.

The placement was very well run and managed throughout. It had already been running for around 5 years and I got a good 6 week handover from the previous placement which allowed me to be thoroughly prepared when I took over the role on my own. It is effectively a full time job meaning I was kept interested and engaged throughout the entire year.

I had certain training opportunities available to me throughout the year and I even took part in a stress management course aimed at improving wellbeing at both work and at home which the company invested in. I think perhaps more training could have been available with regards to developing workplace skills such as IT and teamwork courses.

On my site there were easily around 30 other placement students. At the start of the placement we were encouraged to socialize both in and out of work and I ended up being a part of a great group of friends which really improved my time at Cummins. We're even planning a holiday together during the summer!