HC Business Placement Review

I really enjoyed my placement. I met fantastic people and got a chance to see what I like and disliked about human resources. I look forward to meeting up with my colleagues soon. I moved away from home as well, so that was my first time having a "proper job" and living independently (not as a student).

I felt incredibly valued. Despite being a student vs my colleagues being professionals with years and years of experience, they appreciated my input and a different point of view. I feel as though they genuinely cared about my experience and made sure I got the most out of the placement as well.

I was given a lot of support. This was weaned off throughout the year, so I could learn more skills. For example, when my manager stopped guiding me as closely, I was pushed to seek help and projects from elsewhere. The whole team supported me a huge amount but weren't condescending.

For a lot of the year, I had plenty of free time, sometimes to the point that I was bored. I did bring this up with my manager and supervisors but the work I was given instead was very basic unskilled work which didn't develop certain skills that I was hoping for.

At the beginning of the placement I wasn't given any. This increased naturally. The turning point was when a colleague within the team came back from long-term sick and needed support with lots of new systems. As I had picked up the systems quickly when I started, I was pushed to help her.

The skills I've developed are immeasurable. Not only the practical work like spreadsheets and reports but even things such as office etiquette. When I get an interview/ job post-university I have a bank of knowledge and examples to rely on that most other graduates won't have. Also within the office we had formal training for systems which I can use in my university work.

Very friendly and quite busy. Compared to the other floors, where I worked was pretty bustling as people were regularly discussing cases. I enjoyed that people weren't just stuck in an email or message routine and would get up to talk to colleagues. Everyone was incredibly friendly and more than happy to help.

It wasn't organised at all really. I was only the second business placement student and I think they underestimated how much I already knew or how hard I worked. Often things they would assign for a week would only take a couple of days which would leave me bored and begging for work a lot of the time. Especially in the first couple of months.

I took part in as much training and development as possible but within the department there wasn't a huge amount being invested unless you are very high up. However there were free events and online training sessions I attended and made the most of those times as much as possible.

Very appealing, I wouldn't be able to (or want to) go back into the same role, but there were a couple of other teams I had my eye on, who I got on with well and said that I should apply when an opening comes up.

Not really, I met 2 others who were in my office and in Internal Firm. I became really good friends with them both and we have all stayed in touch, but outside of that, I didn't meet any other placement students. In terms of my colleagues, I definitely did have some good nights out and lunches with them but as they are very different ages with different priorities, it wasn't always the easiest to plan.

I lived in Birmingham so not expensive but not cheap.

Fantastic, lots of bars and a variety of types of clubs. There were also lots of pubs near me, great for casual nights/dates.

There were lots of opportunities but I didn't get involved enough. If I had looked then probably there would've been more but I only took part in 1 club.