Undergraduate work placement Review

My work experience was in the marketing department within PwC, supporting different areas of the business to deliver marketing campaigns. I was able to experience the different stages of a campaign, from strategy and planning to delivery, reporting and reflection of the campaign success using both digital marketing and campaign management skills. My day to day role involved: - Website creation and management - Creation of client communications - Management of events - Social media creation - Design liaison and asset creation - Stakeholder management - Performance reporting

- Social Media training: This involved the best use of social media. How to produce good social posts and assets to go with it, which social media platforms to use for certain posts, how to increase social media engagement and more. - Blog training: Best practice for blog writing, including how to write a good blog and make it engaging. How to upload blogs onto the PwC platform. - Event management: How to organise a professional and successful event. Best practice for dealing with clients and post-event reflection. - SEO reporting and metrics: Reporting on performance of websites and social media posts, then analysing this to see what we did well, not so well and how we can improve it. - Stakeholder management: I had to deal with multiple stakeholders on a regular basis. This ranges from partners, to managers, associates and more. - Time Management: There were times when some tasks were more urgent than others and required lots of attention, therefore I had to be able to manage my time properly to be able to get all my tasks done on time. - Communication: When working with so many different people, it was essential that you communicated properly to be able to perform tasks effectively. And it was necessary to adapt your communication style depending on who you were talking to, whether this be someone internal, external or a client.

I thoroughly enjoyed my work experience from start to finish. You are made to feel apart of the team right from the beginning, given important and meaningful work with great responsibility. People treat you like a team member and trust that you are able to complete your tasks. You get to work in such lovely teams with people always willing to help you and support your development.The work can be challenging at times, but it reaps great rewards afterwards and you gain a sense of pride that you were able to complete such difficult tasks.

The placement was very organised. On the first week, we had lots of introductory sessions to meet different people and understand the business. Then in the first month, we had scheduled training sessions to get us up to speed with all the different platforms that we would be using. We were then assigned to our campaigns quickly and started working with our new teams. The placement was very well organised from the beginning right up until the end.

You learn so much about the company culture from the day you start. Before I started, I had pre-assumptions about what life would be like working in a big organisation, as in everything would be very formal and bureaucratic with scary managers and above, but it wasn't like that at all. Everyone was very friendly, you felt very free to arrange catch ups and talk openly with senior members of staff about concerns, issues or just general work life. PwC prides itself on flexible working, and this was seen to be true when I started. They allowed us to work from home if we wanted and gave us flexibility on our start and end time, especially if we had other engagements. They really invest in their people.

My work placement really helped me to see the type of things that I was good at and not so good at. It allowed me to experience new skills, and I was given the opportunity to learn about different areas of the business also so that if I was interested in something else I could ask to learn more. Working at PwC really allowed me to see that I enjoyed the company and its culture and that it would be somewhere I would like to work again in the future.

This was a paid undergraduate work placement. The role did involve travelling to different offices throughout the year also (mainly London), but this travel was always reimbursed afterwards and the company paid for any expenses that we had such as accomodation and food. I never had to worry about expenses not being paid or reimbursed as the company has a very efficient system that calculates it for you and makes sure that you are paid on time.

Yes, there were many opportunities for networking and meeting other employees. From the first few weeks when you start, you participate in introductory sessions where you get to meet other new joiners and network at these events. Once you start working, you also gradually start to build your work network with people who you've worked with and other people who have specialists skills that you can connect with. PwC also has lots of social communities that you can join both regionally and nationally such as sports teams, religious groups, or hobby communities (similar to university societies).

Yes

I've thoroughly enjoyed my placement, I have no faults to give. The recruitment process was long, but once you get the job, you understand that it was necessary. I've been able to meet so many great people anlong my placement journey who I have and will continue to connect with once my placement has finished. The marketing teams have a very open and friendly culture, and the people are always willing to help out and support your development throughout the year.

If you choose to apply to PwC.... - Firstly don't be put off by the recruitment process, it may seem long however it's necessary as they want to make sure that you'll be appropriate for the job - From the start, make sure to speak to lots of different people and introduce yourself as a new starter, this will help you to start building your network, and you never know how handy these connections could be in the future - Don't be shy to ask questions. If you don't know something be sure to ask rather than sitting there not knowing and unable to do tasks. - Regularly connect with the other placement students. These people are in the same situation as you and therefore their thoughts/ concerns will be similar to yours and so it's good to keep in touch,