Analyst

The work environment is very engaging and the variety of work on offer kept the work interesting. Seeing where the work was going to have an impact was enjoyable.

I was immediately made to feel part of the team and given proper work to do, assisting other people's projects with my own.

My team leader was good at giving guidance as to what work I can get involved in, proposing work that would be more applicable to me. Additionally, when supporting a team member on their projects I was given good guidance and management, sufficient but not micro-managed.

There was always plenty of work to do but this was not to the extent that I was rushed. Projects were well planned to deadlines, giving sufficient time to reach the deadlines.

I was given responsibility for my projects, and had a say on the direction a project was taking even if it was the project I was supporting. I was also responsible for teaching more senior people about some of the tools I was using and when one of my projects required presentation to outside customers I had the responsibility of presenting this.

Whilst my job wasn't directly related to my degree, it used many similar skills (primarily analytical) that have already assisted in my degree projects this year. The skills I developed are very transferable so whilst they are already helping on my degree, I am sure they will continue to help during the rest of my degree and on to my professional work.

Everyone in the team, and wider workplace, are very approachable which gives the office a positive atmosphere. Whilst the main emphasis would always be on getting work done, the office could be quite sociable and generally was quite cheery. The team lunches and various socials/networking events further contributed to this good atmosphere.

I was introduced to my team leader as soon as possible, before I accepted the offer even, for him to explain the role fully to me. We then sorted out my start date between us rather than just being given a date, and my security clearance was sorted early enough for it to be sorted by my start date. The only hitch was my start date needed to be delayed by a week but this was a very minor issue.

The company invested well in my training and development, sending me on in-house courses to learn necessary tools and for the more simplistic tools having a team member teach me. I was sent on trips to develop my wider knowledge and understanding of the defence roles, as this was relevant to my work.

I have been offered a job on the back of my placement.

There is a committee that organises events for new starters, from smaller social events to nights out.

Pretty standard, there are quite a few choices of where to live as the site is located close to Portsmouth, Fareham, Gosport, and Southampton. Going out in Portsmouth is not too expensive and most of the places have offers on every night.

Quite good there was a good variety of places to go and they were generally in the same area so not too much travelling around was needed once you were there.

There was a lot of social sports to get involved in, I did football and we were able to get involved in MOD sports day in Bath. There were plenty of nights out with colleagues not organised by work. There are also lots of local football teams to get involved in, I played for my local one. Being around Portsmouth there's also sailing that you can get involved in, I didn't but know people who did.