Global Purchasing Financial Placement Student Review

I have really enjoyed my time here at Cummins. I work in Finance and support the Purchasing function and it has been a fantastic experience of cross department work. The work is interesting and my manager is very friendly, knowledgeable and helpful which always helps pass time.

I feel that Cummins employees treat their placement students like any other professional and they have invested a lot in the placement program. All the staff and friendly and cooperative. I feel like my ideas and opinions are valued by managers and that I am taken seriously.

My manager has been fantastic with on the job training. I have learnt a huge amount of new skills such as the importance of variance analysis, how the exchange rate affects a global company, the benefits to hedging and new excel skills. These are only a few examples of the support given to me. There has been external training events to help further develop placement students into a professional environment. At the start of the placement I had weekly reviews on how the placement is going and to go over my work. I have quarterly reviews to see how my performance is undergoing and it's a great method to understand how I am performing in relation to expectation.

With a variety of daily duties there is always a demand for work and room for improvement and opportunities to present financials. There was no predecessor with this job and so it has been challenging creating new processes. The workload is new and there is always a opportunity to improve the processes and to take more on.

I definitely feel valued by the company with this global role. The work I do has an impact on a range of purchasing & finance managers in different countries and I am often relied upon. One of my main duties is to start regulating and understanding two variances globally and to understand why these are occurring. I have to complete analysis and communicate with managers to find out anomalies and then present the information for senior management to review.

My confidence in the professional environment has increased dramatically. The ability to be confident with my work has helped me present data more effectively and communicate clearly. I am proficient with excel and other computer programs which has increased productivity and efficiency of daily duties. My work attitude has improved and I think this will help going back to my final year at university.

The atmosphere in CPGK finance department is quite socialable with a opened planned office.

Fantastic, the work plan and individual development plan has encouraged me to progress and to learn more. With the constant feedback of 1-1 weekly reviews at the start and quarterly reviews it is a great way to fully understand how you perform against expectation. They also host external & internal training events to further develop employees.

I received a lot of 1 - 1 support from my manager understanding the technical side of the job as I had not learnt this before.

With Cummins being a global company with a sales revenue of $18 billion in 2014 which also employees 55,000 people I would say there is a wide scope to progress further from higher positions in the same department to new departments and even the possibility to work abroad.

Within Cummins Power Generation Kent they employing over 30 placement students from a variety of universities. The social scene has been excellent with lots of social gatherings at the weekend and house shares.

In relation to the salary I would it's a good price. Somewhere in the middle of not expensive but not cheap.

Incredible - recommend the Goose. A few bars and clubs in Ramsgate, Canterbury city centre is only 25 minute by train and costs less than a fiver for a return.

The company had lots of sports clubs to participate in from football to badminton and also monthly social activities from discounted day trips to weekend trips away.