As part of my university degree, I was required to take a ‘mini placement: 35-40 hours working in a company relevant to my course. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit I was concerned that I would be unable to find a position since so many opportunities were no longer available. I was lucky enough to find Natasha through an event called ‘Digital Change for Not-For-Profit organizations’. Natasha offered me a placement position within her business which I could shape to suit my own needs and availabilities. For me, half a day a week was ideal as it did not interfere with my studies and, allowed me to put into practice the content I learned in class.
I was keen to get started with the placement work but first it was important that I first spent some time thinking about what I would like to get out of the placement. Together, Natasha and I identified four key goals:
- To developing my written skills.
- To taking the opportunity to interact with people.
- To grasp an understanding of CSR in a professional setting.
- To gain an insight into consultancy as a job.
Setting these goals encouraged me to challenge myself and helped Natasha identify which Tasks to allocate me. A few weeks into my placement I reviewed and updated my initial four goals to six goals to achieve by the end of my placement:
- To learn what it is like to work in a consultancy.
- To improve my technological skills using different systems
- To develop my written communication skills
- To learn where I fit in best as part of a professional team.
- To gain an understanding of the support businesses need to thrive whilst making an impact on communities.
- To experience CSR in businesses first-hand.
It was important that I kept my goals up to date so that I could use what I had learned to uncover gaps that I had not realised before. As Michael Korda said, “One way to keep momentum going is to have constantly greater goals”.
Placement diary
During my placement, I kept a ‘Placement diary’ where I recorded activities I performed on my placement and reflected on what I had learned. Reflecting on what went well and what was challenging about the experience allowed me to draw conclusions about myself and develop a plan for how I would use the experience to guide my future decisions and behaviours.
Training, catch up calls, and communication
Good communication and access to training opportunities are key for a good placement. Natasha and I had weekly catch-up meetings where we discuss the placement so far and the tasks for the week. She responded quickly to any additional questions I had over google hangouts, meaning I could complete my work with the reassurance that I could always ask for help when needed despite the placement being remote. In my second week of the placement, I attended a training session with Natasha’s business manager where I received an overview of the systems and processes used by the company to plan and execute projects and communicate with clients. This informative session allowed me to develop new practical skills and a great opportunity for me to meet other members of the team including the project manager and a fellow intern. Natasha held team meetings which allowed me to meet the rest of the team, learn about what roles they take in the company (e.g., marketing role, etc.) and listen to their thoughts and ideas. Through these meetings I learned about the work cycle of the consultancy – from the initial marketing process to the first kick-off meeting with the client right up to the end of the project and the post-project evaluation. This was helpful because it showed me where the individual tasks completed on my placement fit into the company and gave me an understanding of how a consultancy works.
Placement Tasks
Natasha gave the placement a steady structure, setting me some research tasks in the first few weeks, then introducing me to some of the technical aspects of the consultancy and later allowing me to take on some client-based tasks. This structure allowed me to gain an idea of the consultancy’s focus before I took on higher-level roles and made the placement feel less daunting. When I reached the third week of my placement it was time to use what I had learned in my technology training session to complete a more technical part of the placement work using Dubsado. Initially, I found this task challenging as I was unfamiliar with the technology. However, Natasha allowed me to leave the task and come back when I had taken some time to research and familiarise myself with the technology. After some time, I was able to complete the task which built up my confidence in using the technology and in my own abilities. My favourite part of the placement was interacting with the clients, performing interviews, and writing up case studies. The experience gave me an understanding of the impact the consultancy has on people and how clients benefit from the training and development programmes Impact People & Change offers.
Working as a placement student with Natasha and the team at Impact People & Change has allowed me to apply what I had learned about corporate impact at university to the workplace. It has been a great opportunity for me to try out something new and experience working in an area which I am interested in. I have had the chance to learn the technical aspects of consulting and am grasping an understanding of the processes behind acting as a consultant. I am eager to learn more about consultancy work and am looking forward to carrying out some more client-based and written tasks in the weeks to come. I am also l keen to attend my first client workshop where I will be able to get a feel for how the consultancy works to deliver real impact solutions to organisations and businesses. Natasha is a brilliant role model and has helped me to feel more confident in myself to embrace the communicative and technical work of consulting.
Hannah Surgison, 2nd year Environmental Studies student at the University of Reading.