Associate Buyer Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my Industrial Placement year within Global Procurement at National Grid. The variety of work, the culture at NG and the opportunities available in and outside of work made this an invaluable experience and one that will no doubt feed into my future career.

The people at NG are what make this company so appealing to new recruits and retained staff. Well-being is at the forefront of NG's friendly culture and recognition schemes allow you to feel appreciated and valued.

The level of support given to new graduates, placement students and interns is refreshing. Upon joining, you are assigned a buddy (past graduate) a line manager (placement specific), a business coordinator (responsible for your placement organization and experience from a departmental perspective) and a placement coordinator (responsible for placement organization experience from a HR perspective)

There is always sufficient work within Global Procurement at National Grid to allow you to be as busy as you wish. There is always opportunities to take on more work however management are keen to make sure this is balanced and is tailored to your personal development targets and objectives.

Huge amounts. I've ran several strategic sourcing events - notably running one to the value of £75m. I was also involved in process improvements and cost analysis tasks.

The procurement, commercial and corporate skills developed will be invaluable in allowing me to grow my career.

The atmosphere in all the NG offices that I visited was extremely friendly and inclusive. The hot-desk policy applicable through National Grid fosters a knowledge and experience sharing atmosphere.

The Industrial Placement at NG within Global Procurement was extremely well organized in both a departmental/industry specific sense and a broader development sense. The placement with Global Procurement is split into 2 x 6 month placements which allows you to gain a good overview of the department and the Procurement activities undertaken at a large multinational. Further to this the on-the-job training and off-the-job training courses are great and very valuable.

I received the same amount of training as a new professional starter within Global Procurement. In addition there is graduate/ student training courses that are tailored specifically to personal development.

Very appealing. A successful Industrial Placement year gives you the opportunity to be offered a Graduate scheme role. The scheme allows good progression post completion.

All placement students organized and participated in many corporate events and frequently met up outside work (majority rent/ live together). There is always something going on at weekends and we attended lots of off-site visits together too.

Most students and graduates who are based at National Grid House (headquarters) rent in Leamington Spa. The cost of living in Leam is quite expensive circa 500-675p.c.m for somewhere decent. Leam however is lovely and always has lots of bars / restaurants due to its touristic appeal.

Most Industrial Placement schemes are based in National Grid House, Warwick. It's situated in between Leamington Spa and Warwick meaning that the most local nights out are limited to these two towns. Compared to a night-out in Bristol, Leeds, London this will not compare and you will likely be very under-whelmed. However there is a big bar scene in both and a couple of night-clubs in Leam. For a bigger night-out students head into Birmingham.

There is lots of charitable events available to get involved in outside of work as well as a host of sports and other clubs which are posted on a shared activities / and clubs page which is accessible to all NG employees.