Events Coordinator Review

As a non-French speaker it was a leap to go abroad for a placement (albeit in an English-speaking company). I found a great community of English "stagiaires" (students). Settling in was good and Amadeus provided some help into finding a place to live (they put you up in a hotel for a whole month for free). Being so close to places like Nice, Cannes, Monaco and Italy meant that weekends weren't ever spent infront of the Xbox or TV, instead we went sunbathing in summer and snowboarding/skiing in winter!

I worked in a small team (4 people) as part of a wider department (30+ people), with a lot of responsibility. Despite some of my friends taking on jobs where there is a lot of "mentoring the boss", this was not the case for me and I was left to work independently on a lot of important work. By removing the safety net and putting the onus on you, you become self-motivated to do better. Outside of work my boss was always willing to drive me to social occasions and to the airport etc. when I was stuck. Great family spirit that rubs off onto the customers I feel.

A 7 for this one, mainly because although the support was always there and the management was professional. The reason I didn't give an 8 or a 9 is because the job had significantly changed in recent years; a lot more marketing knowledge was being required from the students that management didn't necessarily have the academic background of themselves. In this way it is very flattering to be one of the better marketeers, but there was some trial and error throughout the year that could have been avoided. A good learning exp. for all though.

I like being busy - I perform better and keeps me focused. I suppose technically I should give this a 3 or a 4 but I enjoyed the challenge of hard work and although sometimes having to stay late, I always got things delivered on time (the majority of things anyway!). The first month of work was very quiet but this doubled as a good induction period, so this deserves a 7.

I would give this an 11 if I could. You are really treated like a full time employee, unlike some of my friends in other Amadeus jobs. No coffee-making or odd-jobs in sight; this was a live and active department and the students involvement was CRITICAL. One screw-up - e.g. not getting videoconference details sent to tech - could result in Amadeus losing a customer and millions of euros of business.

It depends what you want from your placement year, but mine certainly exceeded expectations. Personal development was huge here - exposure to corporate life and key decision makers, right up to top, TOP management in my particular job was invaluable - and the takeaways from working in Europe will shape the way I look at international business in the future. Of course, there was little academic learning - its not a university after all - but there were many opportunities to put key learned concepts to practice.

The French were big moaners, but my Swedish office-mate was great and we had a lot of fun.

After about 10 months of my placement Amadeus took away a student mailing list that we used to organise parties and social events outside of work (it was abused with dodgy pictures etc). They didn't put anything else in place to help new students meet others or integrate so I feel sorry for all of the newbies coming in now. The handover period was good and overall well organised. They've been doing it for many years now and are pretty efficient at it to be honest!

My job didn't require me to do any specialist on-the-job training so I can't complain about the fact I didn't do any (to be fair I didn't ask to either). Regular meetings with my manager, my manager's manager and my manager's managers' manager (!!) created a good open-door policy and good exposure to senior staff, so I suppose you can invest yourself in them if you choose to.

Was told by the Director of Corporate Marketing that I was welcome back after I'd finished studies along with one of my student colleagues, so very happy about that.

AMAZING! Beach parties, boat trips, sightseeing on the Riviera, great night-life! Only thing that stopped it getting a 10 was the bitchiness and drama that ensued towards the end of the year, but no big issues.

France is EXPENSIVE! 5.50/6.50 euros for a 500ml beer, not even a full pint - RIP! Food is like Waitrose prices for Tesco food. Having said that, got an ERASMUS grant for 4700 euros over the year, got 1400 CAF (french govt. housing support), on top of my 13200 wage so was actually fairly well off. Needless to say had an incredible time and came back with none of the money I'd earned.

I lived in Antibes, a town need to Amadeus offices, with a large English community, English/Irish themed bars and local clubs in Nice & Juan-les-Pins. 20 euros to get into what us Brits would call a 'standard' club is a total rip-off, but the French DJs are SO MUCH better than what you get back home. Happy hours at most bars brought drinks prices almost back in line with standard UK prices. Oh and the restaurant choice is incredible as you'd expect in France.

Nothing more than a 10 for this. Amadeus runs an employee discount club so you can get cheap cinema tickets, boat rides, jet ski sessions, parachuting, waterskiing etc. In addition to this lots of things are always going on on the Riviera - I saw the Monaco GP this year (35 mins away) and the Cannes Film Festival (7 mins away) to name but a couple of examples.