Technology Placement Review

I enjoyed my time at BT quite a lot. I was given a variety of different tasks for many different jobs which meant it never got boring as I always found myself working on something new and working with new people. Everyone at the company was really nice and supportive, which made me enjoy it even more as I knew I had people to rely on for help, particularly when I was stuck on a task.

I did feel quite valued by my colleagues, to a certain extent. I did tasks for them to help with their jobs but these were often quite small tasks. I also worked with many different people during my time there so it felt like I was valued less but by more people. If I had worked with the same people throughout the whole placement, I feel like I may have been valued more because I would be doing more than just a few tasks for each team.

I was given a lot of support and guidance by the management team that supervised me. Technically, everyone in the company acted as great support; as I worked with many different teams, I found support in all these different teams and everyone was willing to help and support me with tasks. I was also appointed a main supervisor who I could talk to about other more general things in the company, which made me feel supported.

I was never too busy on a daily basis, however I could always ask for extra tasks if I had completed the tasks that I was set. Since I worked with many different teams, I could always ask for extra work from the teams to ensure that I was always doing something productive and not wasting my time there. I was never bored at the company as I was always working on different tasks with new people.

I was given quite a bit of responsibility during my placement, but this was still quite limited. I was trusted to work with many different teams but even then, I was doing a small amount of jobs with each. I feel like I would have had more responsibility if I had formed an integral part of one team rather than doing smaller parts with many different teams as I would be committed to the full task the team would be working on.

I think that the skills I developed and the training I received will assist me in my later life, to a certain extent. Working with different teams helped me to learn more about teamwork and how great tasks can be split into smaller ones for more efficient processing. This will help me understand more about the workplace in the future. Furthermore, I did learn quite a bit about technology from the different teams, which will help em a lot in the future.

Generally, the atmosphere in my office was quite supportive and welcoming. I felt supported by all the different teams, eventhough I did not know them that well. They were also really friendly and easy to talk to, which meant that I was never bored or alone as I had someone to talk to about my worries or just anything else. Breaks were quite relaxing as I had a lot of people to talk to about different things

I think that the work placement could have been organised better for me. I spent a little bit of time with many different groups at the company but I feel like I would have benefitted more from working with one group and sticking with them throughout the whole of the project. This would have enabled me to learn more about technology and it would enable me to track the project to completion as it felt disjointed at some points.

I think that the company did invest quite a bit in me. I was allowed to work with many different teams within the company so this showed that they trusted me. Furthermore, I think that they tried their best to teach me about technology while working on the projects. However, this felt limited as moving from group to group felt a bit disjointed and I was not properly able to engage with the project or my learning.

I would not say that this placement increased my chances of employment within the organisation. This is mainly because I think many other applicants will have similar work placements so I would not stand out a lot. However, I do think I picked up some valuable knowledge on technology that I could research further, hwich may help me to stand out at interviews in the future for technological jobs and other jobs within the same field.

There was quite a good social scene among me and the other employees of the company. Everyone was extremely friendly and supportive and they took me under their wings to help me grow not only as a student with my knowledge, but also as a person. It did feel awkward at first as I barely knew them but after a while, as things loosened up quite a bit, it felt a lot more friendly and comfortable.

I did not move out closer to work. However, I would imagine that it was quite expensive to move closer to work.

I did not really get to experience the nightlife of the area in which I worked.

There were quite a few opportunities to get involved in outside of work but these were mainly work-oriented such as work dinners or work conferences. One particular conference that I attended was about internet connection speeds and many people from around the country, from different companies all attended. This was definitely a great experience as I got to experience what a work conference was like and I was able to learn a lot from hearing them talk.