For my third year I decided to complete a placement in industry for Siemens. Throughout my internship I gained significant experience and knowledge in a variety of IT topics, rather than working in one area specifically. I worked with a team of Enterprise Architects and Information Security Specialists; gaining exposure to Enterprise Architecture Frameworks, EA Tools, as well as the Project Management Process.Future IT and Innovation were integral parts of my role and our team. This presented many opportunities for me to complete several small scale research and development projects, which explored the potential benefits or application within the business. This involved planning and preparation of the task at hand to progress through an established R&D project process. Future IT and innovation work regularly involved collecting and analysing business processes and requirements; which could be achieved through documentation or communication with colleagues in the business. My findings and assessment were regularly shared within my team and presented to the wider IT community.I gained independence and ownership of a variety of topics throughout my placement, such as operational information security tasks. These involved completing a risk assessment on potential data losses, precautionary counter measures, and governance/policy assessment to prevent further incidents.Maintenance and improvement of our teams resources and IT demands were for me to complete on an operational basis. This encompassed updating the teams IT Product Portfolio, as well as the design and creation of a team Intranet and SharePoint environment. Non-Standard demands our team received were first visible to myself; with an aim to collect any missing information or deal with the demand myself. This allowed me to have full visibility of the teams activities and experience the levels of complexity specific requests could have.

During my second year of university, I worked as a Sales Advisor for Esso on a part-time basis. This involved working within a small team of colleagues, but I was frequently required to work independently. The most important aspect of this job was to ensure the safety of the public, which required good communication and attention to detail at all times. Customer Service was integral to encouraging repeat visits, and a large part of this was developing the necessary skills required to interact and communicate in a positive manner for the company and our products.