Hi, I’m Rosie and I am a final year BA Business Management with Employment Experience student. This blog post is about my placement year which I have just returned back from, the skills I developed and how I would recommend a placement year to everyone and anyone… so here’s why!
The application processes can be brutal, as you’re spending considerable time on applications and often hear nothing back. I’m happy to say it’s all worth it when you finally secure a placement and know that it’s not all been for nothing. The sense of achievement is a great feeling when you’ve successfully got your first job and got your foot in the door. My placement was at Lloyds Banking Group. This is where your journey – and potentially your entire career – starts.
My placement began a few weeks after my final second year exam. My team were welcoming, supportive and most importantly I had a ‘proper’ role within the team, not just making the cups of tea and filing away documents. Without getting into too much detail of what I did in my day to day role due to confidentiality, I worked in the PMO (Project Management Office) for the Risk Division. We ensured all running projects were in line with their scope; finance, resources, planning, time and internal and external 
governance. So what did I learn from this role? The ability to question the status quo. The team had to complete numerous, tedious tasks, I booked myself on excel courses and took it upon myself to automate these tasks which are now heavily embedded into the team. Definitely got myself some brownie points there.
Come Christmas time, the company was undergoing a huge restructure. It was good to experience this as it occurs quite often in larger organisations. I could see that morale of certain individuals dipped and others seemed happy to have the chance to do something new. Time for a team away day and a team building football game!
On the back of the restructure, my role did change and I became a Risk Strategic Analyst. This meant that instead of checking projects whilst they were in the process of being delivered, I now decided which projects were to go ahead. With a set budget, which projects would benefit the group the best? To do this, my communication skills had to be excellent. I was now dealing with the board, the head of risk as well as many other senior members of staff. I had to learn how each individual preferred to be contacted, when was appropriate and be clear with why I was contacting them. Daunting to say the least.
So my year at Lloyds Banking Group was coming to a close. I enjoyed it so much I decided to go for the graduate programme that Lloyds Banking Group and the Risk Division had to offer. I’m happy to say I was successful! I will be returning in September 2019. I would recommend a placement year just purely for the experience. I gained so much confidence, belief in myself and now as a Futures First ambassador for the Management School I will happily lead lectures for 200+ first year students. You definitely wouldn’t have seen me doing that a year ago!