Sales & Marketing Assistant Review

First 6-8 weeks were relatively monotonous, you are essentially starting at the bottom of the ladder. stick with it though as the more effort you make in that initial period the better the jobs you will get after and thats when the job gets enjoyable and rewarding

i was lucky to be in a relatively young team and was welcomed straight from the start. i was included in all the social events outside of the office and everyone was really easy to chat to. I think it's a case of you get out what you put in - if you make the effort with your colleagues they will appreciate it and do the same with you

support and guidance was always there if i needed it, and from a number of different people. i was treated like a normal member of staff and generally was left to get on with things on my own which i thought was the best approach and think i benefitted from

it often depended on the time of year and which promotions we ran. for example as i did a lot of work in sales during the christmas period things slowed down a lot. i think its at times like these you can make the best impression to your colleagues as you find yourself new tasks to do instead. during the festive season i spent a lot of time in the office preparing for promotions that were due to run in the following quarter

i was running my own sales territory at one point which was a lot of responisibility. i think it cam down to the fact i really tried to impress in my first 6 weeks. 12 months is a short period of time so i wanted to get people to really trust me in the first 6 weeks and i think this is why i ended up having the responsibility of my own sales patch

the day to day skills are the ones i will use most, telephone manner, having the conifdence to speak to new people etc. i made sure i signed up for any training available - a year is a short time and i wanted to get the most out of it

it normally depended on which managers were in!

3M have around 20 placement students annually and have been doing ti for years so they have great experience of how to make the scheme work

lots of trainign was compulsory in the first month. additional training was always available, you often just needed the confidence to ask for it

Hopefully i will have done enough to be offered a graduate placement, competition is tough though. i would definitely come back if offered a position, just hope ive impressed enough to be considered

ive made 2 or 3 really good friends here who i will definitely keep in touch with and hopefully will see them back here for the grad scheme. its important to come in with an open mind as similar to uni you get people from all walks of life in the office. the biggest adjustment for me was talking to the older generation on a regular basis who before placement i wouldnt speak to that often

i was lucky to live with my parents so i got cheaper rent. reading is quite an expensive area and the biggest cost for me was taxis back home after a night out. if you budget your money though this isn't really a problem

i was sued to the bournemouth nightlife which is amazing, where as reading has mainly bars so the nightlife wasnt that great. with there being a lot of students at 3m and in the surrounding business park it was easier to make the most of what was there thoguh

i played rugby and basketball during my placement and was also involved in a charity scheme the placement students ran. there were opportunites to play football and squash too