Commercial Trainee Review

I had a fantastic year overall.

My team were really giving in terms of time and support. I found that whenever I needed help they were willing. They put a lot of time and thought into my personal development. However I did find that this differed hugely between the teams and placements and others did not get the same level of coaching that I did.

I had an amazing manager, we did catch ups weekly but more informally we discussed my work load most days. My Brand manager was also great to work with and whilst she had less free time she was willing to sit down and discuss anything I had problems with/wanted her advice on. Again this differed between placements as there was no clear scheme in place for management.

I was busy but I preferred that as I like having a lot to do. There would be times when you were overrun and times when it was quieter as in most businesses. I found extra jobs and tasks when I did have more free time and felt I was supported in picking up additional work.

For a placement year I was amazed at the level of responsibility I was given. I was incharge of making a large update to our website, changing our packaging, adapting copy for foreign countries and responsible for a PR campaign amongst many other things. This did differ by placement though and you were gradually given more responsibility as the year went on.

I learnt a great number of new skills. In terms of both professional skills to personal ones such as effective organization and people skills. Whilst I picked up a lot on the job, and from the extensive training, many of my my development came from watching the people whom I worked with, who being very talented Marketeers were great role models.

There was occasional chatting and fun and the atmosphere was very relaxed. However we were very much there to do a job and the focus was on that the majority of the time.

It had a bad start in that little was confirmed to us in advance. They didn't tell us the names of the other placements until a few weeks before we started making organizing a house difficult. I was offered my job in December and heard nothing until May. However once there the training was well organized and very extensive. A lot of emphasis was placed upon our personal development.

I had extensive training. Introduction training lasted a whole month and was very intensive and detailed. As the year went on I was given training in specific areas that I wanted development on. I found that providing someone else was having training we were able to tag along. For a placement I felt the organization invested a huge amount in us.

I'm going back next year as a graduate

The social scene was pretty poor. I organized a lot of events for the placements but it was very much left to our own devices. We had a lot of really good nights out as a Marketing department however after day events.

Maidenhead is relatively expensive. It isn't as expensive as being in London but it was still not cheap.

Maidenhead is SHOCKING! If you are looking for a nightlife I would recommend living in Reading and commuting, However if you do venture from Maidenhead Reading and Windsor are pretty close and London is an (expensive) possibility.

There were Netball/ Football etc. But I didn't feel there was any effort by the company to encourage you to go to these things. We had to find them on our own.