Corporate Human Resources Assistant Review

I enjoyed my placement so much that I didn't really want to leave and go back to University!

After settling in, not only my direct team, but the wider teams were so lovely and I definitley felt like a valued member of the department.

Throughout the year, I was always supported by my reporting manager and my direct team were always willing to help if I asked!

I have never known busy like this before. I thought University was stressful, but working in the Corporate world is busy busy busy. It was very much "work hard, play hard" and you knew that all the effort you were putting in, would end in a good result and ultimately be worth it!

By about 4-6months in, I was pretty much treated like any other member of the HR department. The biggest piece of responsbility was actually running the Industrial Placement scheme, which I was responsbile for from sourcing to onboarding.

Before I went on placement, I couldn't tell you much about the HR function within a business, let alone explain it in context. Now though, I could go on for hours explaining about processes, employment law, recruitment, employee relations, employee engagement... the list is endless and have real life experiences of them. I went on coureses, dealt directly with solicitors/employment lawyers, developed assessment days etc etc. Ultimately, it has developed me into a whole new person - a mini HR professional and now I am writing my Dissertation on a HR topic!

The office itself was quite lively, however it depends what floor you're on! It was never dead, or silent, or felt like you couldn't talk or have a giggle - despite HR being a serious topic at times.

Overall, the placement was pretty well structured - and part of my role was to review and improve it for the following year, as I had first hand experience of what went well, or would could have gone better. I think involving the IP's into the Performance Management process, really helped in terms of structure and actually developing over the year, instead of just doing a job, you were constantly challenged to improve and then reflect upon how it went. It really helped me understand how I was doing and what my weaknesses were.

Over the year, I must have gone on at least 10 courses, ranging from sitting in on HR training sessions, to going along to a team "6 hats" course, to communication skills. The company definitely did not hold back on opportunities and was open to your suggestions on what you would like to go on.

In terms of appealing - I would go back in a heart beat. But in terms of available, is a different matter. The one downside is that despite an amazing Industrial Placment scheme, they do not offer Graduate roles and rarely employee entry level candidates. The latter is purely because of the nature of the business, and the lower level, coordinator style roles, tend to be filled internally. I would love to go back to the company, but whether or not they will have something suitable by the time I graduate is another matter.

The group of students that I were on placement with were a little diverse and the majority did not move to london for the year - so it made it difficult to meet up/socialise. However, we did go organise a Christmas meal, and frequently end up all together in the pub on a Friday afternoon.

It's London - so everyone knows that you should expect the worst. Depending on where you go, it can be horrendously expensive, but then there are some really good and reasonable affordable nights out to be had (Angel Islington, Shoreditch, Camden). The lost of living was as expected. You've just got to be willing to hand over half of your months wages to rent, bills,food.

East Finchley is located in north london - right on the Northern line so it has good links into the city. The place itself had 2 main pubs which people would regularly go to, but you wouldn't have a night out in East Finchley. You would just jump on the tube, be down in camden in 15 minutes and there you have endless amounts of variety!

A few opportunities, the majority were due to the inhouse charity RMHC - I volunteered and supported a Charity Auction night, which was amazing.