Supply Chain Analyst Review

In regards to the work I did enjoy the most of it, however I didn't feel challenged in the final third of the year. Repeating the same daily and weekly tasks took its toll! The objectives set out at the start of the year seemed very interesting and aimed more towards purchasing and cost reduction but in practice the placement was largely supply chain management and monitoring performance levels.

This is hard to rate as I was valued more by certain people than others. On the whole I'd say whenever I did a good piece of work, the people that it directly helped out or wanted that piece of work made me feel valued, whether that was by thanking, praising or other means of showing gratitude.

I was given guidance from all levels of management, from the purchasing director who seemed people focussed to me, also my team manager, mentor and team members gave me guidance. Plus other management figures in different roles. On the whole I was pleased with the guidance.

At times I was really busy and some other times I was struggling to find things to do. It's easy to say that the company didn't provide enough work, by placement students should use their initiative to complete their objectives of the placement year or other outside objectives.

At times I was given a lot of responsiblity, such as managing supplier relations with 3 suppliers and becoming involved in big sourcing projects. I was mainly given the most responsibilty in the first 6/7 months of the placement. However after a managerial shake up, the new manager seemed keen to deprive me of any responibility without reason

I developed many skills and received training that will help me through my final year and beyond in to a Graduate Scheme. I don't think many of the other placement students received the same level but a lot of skills and training i received was through my own doing

The office was fairly quiet, I'm not sure whether that was because people were trying to be proffessional or maybe because they were busy most of the time. But people would speak once there was a good topic on the go. I'd say the atmosphere was friendly in that everyone was willing to help at any time and on the whole everyone was polite.

From the application process through to my induction the placement scheme seemed well organised, however whilst in the process of recruiting new placement students, I thought they applicants and eventual successful applicants were treated poorly

I was given every opportunity to attend any kind of training I wanted. I attended a course at Rolls Royce to provide product and market awareness. I attended two negotiation courses. I received internal training on computer systems and CI, Problem Solving and other areas.

After applying for the Graduate Scheme I was successful in getting a place on the scheme.

Yes a lot of the placement students had been to University together, there was a good social scene for most people I think. However, where the company let themselves down was by not arranging a event so all the placement students could meet each other

Generally Birmingham is standard cost of living. THere was plenty of places to go to socialise such as Birmingham City Centre which has a few places to go. Solihull, Mosesly

See above, but on the whole I'd say there was plenty to do for all people. Any big City like Birmingham caters for most tastes

There wasn't any activities arranged for about 9 months and then a few came along all at once like Go Karting, Rounders and Paint Balling within the department. But there wasn't anything set up by the company itself. In terms of outside the company there was numerous opportunities to become involved in a variety of things.