My FDM Sandwich Year Experience

12 months ago, Olivia Kerr began a sandwich placement as a Recruitment, Marketing & Events Assistant at our FDM Glasgow office. As part of her degree at Edinburgh Napier University, she was required to complete a year-long placement that would expose her to a wide range of tasks, experiences and people. Olivia wrote about her first few weeks back in September, and now at the end of her time with us, she has taken to the FDM blog to reflect on her experience.

I took on a variety of tasks, but my main job responsibility is taking on the role of the Assessment Centre Coordinator for Glasgow, which requires me to guide graduates and ex-forces personnel through the assessment day before they can be offered a place on the business or technical training programme. In doing so, I have learnt invaluable communication skills and interview techniques which I have not only implemented in my own work, but also been able to pass onto candidates. Coordinating the assessment days has enhanced my organisational skills and self-confidence, and I have even benefited from running remote assessment centres in Dublin.

As my degree focuses on marketing, I was particularly keen to develop my application of marketing theory in real-world examples.  Over the past few months, I have been given the opportunity to take on a variety of marketing tasks, including the monitoring of media partners and creating posts for FDM’s multiple social media platforms. Alongside this, I have particularly enjoyed gaining experience of video content creation and getting involved in FDM’s advertisement videos.

My role also stretched to tasks within the events department as I assisted in contacting venues for FDM networking events, whilst also promoting these both internally and externally. I also attended multiple university career fairs and University Partnership events to discuss the opportunities at FDM with graduates, which allowed me to build upon my ability to pitch the training programme.

Personally, one element of my role which stood out to me was assisting in the recruiting for UK summer intern positions. Seeing candidates through the entire application process allowed me to build rapport with my candidates, who I was responsible for prepping before each assessment to ensure they put themselves in the best possible position for securing their desired role. To find out that my some of my candidates were successful and receiving kind feedback from them made the whole experience feel very rewarding. Additionally, I have especially valued working alongside other placement students in the other UK offices, as they acted as a constant support network throughout my year.

I would like to thank everyone at FDM, and particularly the Glasgow office, for giving me the opportunity to take on such a varied placement and for allowing me to feel so involved in the workplace. As I reflect on how I started my placement year, I can see how much I have grown in confidence on both a personal and professional level.

I look forward to returning to my final year of university with experience of the corporate world and to represent FDM on my university campus as a Student Ambassador.

Read more stories like this from our blog below:

• Finishing My FDM Journey Down Under
• Conquering a Career in Compliance
• FDM’s CEO Rod Flavell Named as an Agent of Change