junior brand manager Review

I enjoyed my placement to a certain extent, I enjoyed it when I had projects that I owned and I was given responsibility for. however this only really happened after 6 months. I feel we should be given more responsibility and ownership earlier. I have enjoyed the culture and the business environment.

I do often feel valued especially with projects I own and the effect they have on colleagues. however some projects and work that is very time consuming does not get recognised as many colleagues do no know how time consuming it is (GCMA). it would have been better if my opinion and views were seen as more valuable in meetings.

throughout my placement I have been given good support by the two managers I have, received continuous 1 on 1 support which has been really helpful and oppurtunities to discuss progression and improvements. in some circumstances I was maybe given too much support, without any freedom to complete the work by myself. this was mostly at the beginning of placement where my work often got completely changed to allow the manager to contribute, and these changes made no difference to the end piece. maybe placement workers should be trusted and their work respected a bit more.

the work load varied on placement, sometimes there would be a lot of pressure and work especially around op plan, and sometimes there were little projects available from managers. maybe it would be useful if managers planned out work and projects at the start of the year to make sure they are evenly distributed.

my responsibilities varied massively on placement the first 6 months under my old manager I was given limited responsibility and often helped others with project. once I gained my new manager and had 6 months of experience I was able to manage my own projects and felt like I was able to contribute and offer more to the team.

the skills and training I have developed will help me more in my working life than university. although I did improve my time management and organisation skills especially with emails during a course which will be useful. I have also improved my presentations and leadership skills which are really important for interviews and further progression in careers.

Good atmosphere with some good characters. however because it was a small team often there were not many people in the office, meaning the atmosphere was not as energetic. the team did not do very much outside of work so sometimes hard to bond with people outside of talking about work.

the placement started well with a variety of training and overall placement sessions. however after this managers seemed to have not specifically planned the year, although iw as lucky that I worked closely with my manager I know others were only given work and training if it came by rather than actual planning.

the company only invested in training that I asked for and gave a valid reason for going on it. there was little training organised in advance and i think it would have been useful to have some organised general training for all undergrads (such as presentation skills and leadership etc).

the prospects are appealing with good progression and salary. however I have learnt on my placement that this industry is not for me, and I would be more suited to a more dynamic and less restrictive workplace. the grad scheme does sound appealing and allows for you to experience the sales side of the job aswell as marketing.

the fellow placement students were really friendly and there was a good culture for doing things after work in you're friendship groups. the only difficulty being that people were situated in different areas around surrey so often difficult to meet up with everyone. at lunchtimes the placement students all eat together and allows for a break away from work.

the cost of living was pretty poor for the living standard and surrounding area. I lived in redhill which offered very little services and cost £500 a month. the town was run down and the area itself had not much to do. there are some nicer areas around work which in hind sight I would have lived in such as Reigate and Epsom.

the nightlife is pretty poor around the surrey area, especially in redhill and Reigate. there is one club in Reigate which is not the best, there are some nice pubs and the blue anchor has a nice beer garden, aswell as the pheasant near work. however there is very limited choice

I found it hard to find any activities after work, especially as most weekend s I found myself in london. At work there was no indication of any clubs to join, there was a 5 a side team which I joined but they played very infrequently. although there are a selection of gyms around there was a lack of recreational sports to join.