Work Placement: A Short Reflection

In the summer of 2009 I completed a three week work placement in the South of England. During this time I work shadowed the Head of Internal Communications but I also worked closely with the company's PR and Marketing professionals. I found the placement to be really useful since I got to experience what it was like to work for a very corporate and innovative company.

I learned so much from my mentor and I am very thankful to her for taking me under her wing and sharing her wisdom and knowledge of the company and her role within it. I admit however, the first couple of days were tough, ok, maybe the first few weeks. This was just because the company is so large and complex that often I felt confused and found myself just nodding along to what people were telling me. But further questioning and research meant that by the end of the three weeks I had managed to gain a firm understanding of the company and (more importantly) what it's like to work in Internal Comms.

There were many moments where I thought "Yes, this definitely the career for me" but the most memorable one has to be attending an employee engagement conference in London. I got to hear from loads of PR and Communications professionals about how they had engaged/ failed to engage their employees when going through an organisational change program. This is an area of interest for me, so as you can imagine, I was in my element. At lunch I had the opportunity to test out my networking abilities and they seemed to work since I came away with a few contacts that day. I remember talking to a group of professionals on the hotels terrace overlooking the busy City. It made me think about what I want to be doing in my future career.

My placement has given me confidence in my abilities. I have picked up many transferable skills from university and I can't wait to put these into practice next year when I get a full-time job! I'm still unsure as to what career path I will take but what I learnt from my placement is that I work best in a well-structured, professional environment. So, I'll wait with anticipation to see what the future holds...


Are you a sucker for a Corporate environment too, or do you prefer the more creative and sociable working environment?