Work experience is an invaluable opportunity for students to gain a real understanding of the workplace and it also gives us a chance to support and guide the next generation of talent. Macy recently spent two weeks fully immersed in life with us here at Park, taking on tasks, building relationships and discovering new career paths. Below, she shares her reflections on what she learned.
My Park ReflectionWhat is something you’re proud of from your time here?
Something that I am proud of whilst being at Park is that I have really opened up in the workplace and shown my personality to everyone here. Another thing I am proud of is stepping out of my comfort zone, for example the presentation I delivered in the team meeting. I have never been a person who likes to present to others, so I am proud that I did that.
What surprised you about the workplace or the work you were doing?
What surprised me about working at Park is seeing how much work the team does behind the scenes that candidates don’t know about. There is so much more to the job than just emailing companies about getting a candidate in for an interview.
Something that surprised me about the work I was doing is how careful you need to be when typing up a job description for a business and then putting it on the database for the rest of the team to see. That was a surprise for me because I didn’t realise that was something that needed to be done in this line of work, so it was interesting.
What task or activity did you enjoy the most, and why?
I would say my favourite task I completed at Park was creating my presentation. I really enjoyed this because it involved a lot of research about their competitors, and I learned so much during the process which was really useful. I also liked giving my own personal opinions based on the businesses and suggesting ideas and recommendations for Park to take into consideration and to help make the business better.
I also really enjoyed being able to watch the online meetings with businesses about potential roles, what they want from a candidate, and what the hiring process will look like.
My favourite activity was having the opportunity to go to lunch at the Royal Yacht with lots of businesses and meeting people from different sectors. I really liked listening to the panel talking about how they would handle different crises, what businesses can do when one appears, and what can make the process easier.
Was anything challenging, and how did you approach it?
At the beginning of my work experience it was challenging to learn how to update the CRM database, create job descriptions in the proper format, and learn where everything in the folders was. But after a few days I managed to get the hang of it, and it became a lot less challenging. I also wrote down the steps in my notebook which really helped me navigate my way around.
What new skills or knowledge do you feel you’ve gained?
Some new skills I have learned are being more independent, career skills and understanding how a business operates, confidence, digital skills, presentation skills, and building relationships.
I have really enjoyed building good relationships with the whole team over the past two weeks. From the start they have always been really welcoming and always helping me when I needed it, showing me lots of interesting things such as how to do a pre-screening for a client and talking to me one-to-one about compliance, HR, and trusts. This has given me new knowledge in different areas.
Has this experience influenced your ideas about your future career?
Yes, definitely. Even though I am still a bit unsure about what I would like to do for a career, I now have some interests in mind from my time here at Park. I really enjoy marketing, and while being at Park I have been able to do some marketing for the business which has been fun.
I also had a talk about compliance and what comes with it, and I have now found a potential interest in that area of work. Before I came here, I had no idea what compliance was, but thanks to Toni I now have a possible new interest.