UK Supply Chain Specialist Review

It was a really good opportunity to settle into a large company and take on immediate responsibility. Although my placement was with Vauxhall, my work involved General Motors as a whole, which enabled me to have contact with different operations in countries such as Germany, Spain, Netherlands and more.

As my placement progressed, I felt increasingly valued by my colleagues. Fairly early on I was even able to share my own knowledge and expertise in areas like Microsoft Access, which helped others in my team. This lead to even being approached by members of the team for my help.

My manager/supervisor was extremely good with support and guidance. I was able to have as much or as little support as I wanted, which was good for a job which initially can be daunting. I had weekly one to one meetings with my supervisor where I was able to cover any area of the placement which i wanted to discuss. As the placement progressed I needed less immediate support, but it was still good to have the one to one meetings on a weekly basis as it allowed us to catch up and discuss any issues i've been working through. All in all I couldn't have asked for better with regard to guidance and support.

At the start of the placement I would have said the balance was slightly off, as I didn't have enough time to complete the work I had. However this was down to inexperience and as I settled into the role I continued found that I had an increasing amount of free time. I discussed this with my manager and we agreed for me to take on additional responsibilities. This soon filled any free time that I had.

From the get go i had a lot of responsibility. Part of my job role entailed managing european suppliers in Poland and Slovakia. Part way through my placement I calculated I had the responsibility for parts with a combined value in excess of £1,000,000

The placement was brilliant in developing both academic and interpersonal skills. One key area I wanted to improve was presenting (confidence and presenting style etc) which I still felt university hadn't really helped with. I'm now comfortable with presenting after having given presentations to Directors within the company. The same applies to managing workloads and also prioritising work. I know that these two skills alone will help with both university and future life when I go on to find a future career.

The atmosphere in my office was fairly neutral really, at times it could be very quiet but others not so much. However the people I worked with made up for this and it was good to have a good atmosphere in my immediate team.

Bearing in mind my role was brand new, i feel the placement was set up very well. I mainly put this down to the fact that I had weekly one to ones with my manager. This way anything could be correccted as and when it occured.

I had various types of training so I feel the company invested in me fairly well. I took part in a compulsory AA safe driving course, Microsoft Access training and presentation training.

The reason for the score above is because they don't have a specific graduate scheme. For this reason the chance of actually having future employment prospects are fairly slim. However that isn't to say that if there was a graduate scheme or an opportunity to join the company I would not take it up.

There were always a lot of social activities going on throughout the year, particularly the handover period which can be likened to freshers at uni!

I've put a pretty neutral rating for this as I personally commuted from home in stevenage to work each day so it doesn't necessarily apply to me. However in terms of socialising in Luton and the surrounding areas there is a lot of variety and the price is good.

More or less the same as the previous comment - the night life in Luton and the surrounding areas such as St Albans was really good and allows for a variety of different nights out.

There are LOTS of charity activities to take part in, with bike rides, golf days and kyaking in scotland to name just a few.