PR Assistant Review

Panasonic is a fantastic place to work - the company is held up by a philosophy of great workmanship and it shows. Everyone works together to achieve exellent results and I have never once felt out of place. You won't be thrown in at the deep end straight away, but you will gradually be given a lot of responsibility and even your own project to work on! Everyone in the team is there to help; it's a really great atmosphere to work in.

Though the admin tasks may sound boring, they are crucial to your work and everyone else's in the team (and other teams you work with)! For example, getting new awards out must be done in 24 hours, so that they can be put up on the company's website and displayed to the public.

Everyone in my team is so helpful - you really do feel valued in your role. My managers were great at understanding that I was new to the role, so while there was a lot to take in and learn, I was given great support if I didn't understand anything and soon everything seemed easy!

There is always something to do - whther it's chasing a journalist for collection of a product or scanning in coverage from magazines, I'm never bored or sat there twiddling my thumbs. That's exactlty what I love about this job - it keeps me on my toes!

Though I'm not the head of my team, everything I do is important and assists other members of the company. It's vital to be on the ball and organised at all times!

This placement has, so far, been everything I wanted it to be and more - I'm learning something new all the time! Speaking to different people on the phone every day really does boots your confidence and makes you feel ready to take on all sorts of new challenges. I'm always finding something relevant to my course, too, and I think this will really help me in my last year of university. It's great experiencing the working world and having your time in the workplace count to your final degree!

I work on the Consumer floor and it's always buzzing. It's a general office environment, as you would expect, but very lively and upbeat!

The interview process was - naturally - nerve-racking but well thought out and I really feel as though I was putinto the right role. There are 16 placement students at Panasonic this year, all working in different positions. The company offer a lot of different training courses, such as Media Training (which helps to develop presentation and interview skills). Mu university keep well in touch with Panasonic and vice versa, to help make my placement the best it can be.

There are so many training courses! So far, I have been on quite a few courses, including a Media Training course, a Health and Safety course and a coverage clipping service course - all of which, in their own way, are important to my learning and understanding of my position in the company. Panasonic also offer a monthly training session on the Basic Business Philosophy, which is all about the ethics of the company and how each department fits it into their activities - it's really interesting!

This placement has really opened my eyes to how the working world oprates and I wuld love to work here again. There are so many opportunites open to me and new things I can experience so it has been a fantastic position to be in.

I live in a house with 5 other placement students and we live only a few minutes away from some other students working at Panasonic! We have a lot of great local ammenities (shops, supermarkets, takeaways - and pubs!) and are only a 15 drive away from Reading town centre, which is a great place to shop! The nightlife isn't as great as it would perhaps be in a mojor city, but there are a lot of fun places to go out of an evening!

Our rent (in a house of 6) is a great prices of only £240 a month. This doesn't include gas and electric, but it does include water and broadband! We live about 25 minutes away from work - the Panasonic office is based in Bracknell - so that isn't too bad. As for socialising, it depends on where you go - some places are cheap as chips (Purple Turtle is free to get in and is always a great night out!) and some places are a little pricier... There are a lot of lovely places to eat in Reading, so make sure you get out there and explore your new home town!

As I said, not agreat variety, but I have a feeling we ahven't explored everywhere yet - Reading has a lot of nooks and crannies! Purple Turtle is a great club (indie music with a great atmosphere upstairs, dubstep in the basement!) and there are lots of nice bars to have a quiet drink in too! We often go to the local pub for lunch at the weekend after a night out...

We're really busy during the week, so we always make the most of the weekends - shopping always seems to be involved... At the start of our placement, we were all given a company benefits card, which offers 85% off at the local paintballing site!