Aftersales Commercial Assistant Review

I really enjoyed working for Hyundai and really didn't want to leave at the end of my placement. I loved the amount of responsibility I was given because it meant I was doing a real job. Everyone I worked closely with were really supportive when I was taught what roles I would be carrying out throughout my placement.

Quite simply if I was ill or on annual leave I would have to make sure one of my colleagues (a full time permanent employee) was able to complete some of my daily tasks; it made me feel like an integral part of the team. Once we had worked out my strengths I was often called upon to help my colleagues with small parts of their projects.

I was given a mentor as well as a very supportive manager, although I was often supported by my entire team. The aftersales team in Hyundai has a really strong team ethic and therefore we would each support each other on a day to day basis. I always felt comfortable enough to ask for help when I needed it as well as being able to ask what I thought of as 'silly' obvious questions.

I was almost run off my feet at times, there was always more work that could be done. I had a number of daily reports to complete and publish to top managers in the company, as well as managing a number of small projects. There was always a lot of work to be done, however my team always ensured that I had not taken on too much work at a time. As I was completing work for a variety of managers, my mentor and direct manager were very good at ensuring my work load was still manageable.

My daily reports were relied upon by a number of the top managers and directors, these reports would often be the basis of decision making for new initiatives for the company, particularly in the aftersales department. I did a lot of testing of our new online aftersales packages which are used by our entire dealership network. I was responsible for ensuring there were no glitches and that our programmers had understood the brief as well as supplying my feedback to the programmers as well as my manger. I was also responsible for the organisation of a number of the Aftersales directors meetings and events,

My placement has dramatically improved my work ethic which has been incredibly useful in my final year at university (I now don't leave all the work for my assignments until the last minute any more). When completing my statistics module I have been greatly advantaged my excel skills which I gained whilst on placement. Plus the year I spent with Hyundai was the basis for my dissertation topic choice. As my dissertation topic is based upon the company I have been back to the office a couple of times since completing my placement to carry out and discuss my research.

It is an open plan office and so it is a fairly professional environment. But everyone was quite approachable and friendly. There was a strong focus on everyone working together to get the best results in our work. Just generally there was always a lot going on. It was a good productive atmosphere which did allow for a fair amount of banter to fly across the office.

The placement was really well organised, there was a 2 week cross over period between the last intern finishing and my start date which allowed for a good handover. As the team have had a number of interns across the years they all understood and were very helpful when I had some work to do for University and easily facilitated my tutor visits. The placement role was well defined but had some flexibility which allowed me to pick some of the projects that interested me.

I had a training day introduction to the company which took place before my placement. This was really useful because it gave me a good understanding about my department and how the company worked - it also gave me chance to be re introduced to my team informally before my Monday start date. A lot of time was spent developing my skills on a day to day basis. I was given a lot of informal excel and other software training which I am certain will help me in my future career.

Hyundai is a medium sized company and so they only take on around 5 or 6 interns a year. They don't have a very high employee turnover so there aren't usually a lot of jobs available. However Hyundai is growing at a strong rate (particularly in comparison to other automotive companies) and therefore expanding their operations meaning their future employment prospects are growing. Plus they have now successfully set up their own graduate scheme.

I lived back at home for my placement, but a few of the other placement students lived together and enjoyed the social scene mainly in places close to High Wycombe rather then High Wycombe itself (London is just 30 mins away). I spent the majority of my time with my team rather then other students. I have kept in touch my team and have met up for a catch up several times since completing my placement.

As High Wycombe is quite close to London the cost of living isn't very cheap but it's certainly manageable on the placement salary. As for the cost of socialising the surrounding pubs are reasonable and Bucks New University have their own club with 2 rooms and good student prices in the middle of the town.

London is just 30 minutes away which is good as High Wycombe has a limited number of clubs.

There was a company football team, and there were a number of departmental team days out of the office.