Placement Student- Associate Consultant Review

I have been with Hays since June. Since joining, I have gained a real insight to the corporate environment and feel that I have already learned many skills and gained invaluable experience.

Being a placement student has made very little difference. I was put into training along with associates that were starting full time employment at Hays. You are trained and given equal responsiblity compare to other colleagues. At the same time, Hays are also aware that placement students may have never worked in an office before and can appreciate if you are slightly slower to pick up certain norms of the working environment.

Support has been excellent. Going through a 12 week training programme that goes through the ins and outs of recruitment in lots of depth has given me more than enough confidence to carry out my role. If I do have any queries, either a member of my team, manager or director are always happy to help. Everyone is very approachable.

I always have a task to do and am never sitting idly, however as with any job some days are busier than others. Recruitment tends to be quite a fast-paced environment.

My particular role involves me assiting my colleague on his recruitment desk. This means that there is a large amount of responsibility as he will rely on me to help run his desk. At the same time, it has also meant that he has been able to teach me a lot more about our particular industry sector than if I had been on my own which has been beneficial.

The skills I have developed so far are extremely transferable and I am sure that I will gain more by the time my placement finishes.

Everyone is very friendly within the office and has a generally positive atmosphere. Has a work hard, play hard ethos so have already been on a couple of work drinks to celebrate achievement within the office.

Organisation has been good. My first day started off in training and then was gradually spent more and more time at my desk. Now training is more or less complete, I know exactly what I should be doing.

Training has been excellent. Having 12 weeks training at the beginning to ensure that we are experts at not only recruitment but also within our fields of expertise. I also had a week long training module where we are assessed and given advise on how to improve as recruiters.

At the moment considering I have only been at Hays for around 3 months, I am unsure if I want to go into recruitment after I finish my placement. I am definitely going to consider it as an option if I get offered to return once my placement has finished.

People regularly going to pub on Friday. There are office/team nights out when targets have been hit.

I'm living at home and commuting into London. So it's good saving money from not paying rent etc, however commute is quite expensive and quite long.

Placement is in London, so nightlife is pretty much as good as it gets.

There are always opportunities to get involved in activities, from paintballing to mixed netball to fantasy football.