My Placement at Stellantis

Support from the Placement Unit

Placements are a big part of undergraduate study at Huddersfield. I believe that a placement is a very good opportunity for students to gain experience and become commercially aware. I believe that full-time work experience is excellent for personal growth, your CV and makes you more employable.

I received masses of help from the placement team at Huddersfield Business School. They delivered a presentation at the beginning of my second year and provided a lot of useful information about the placement which enabled me to learn about what to expect. The placement team provided CV help and offered mock interviews and mock assessment centres. I had my CV checked by the placement team and the careers and employability service and had several mock interviews with them before my actual interview and it helped me a lot.

My role with Stellantis (Vauxhall Division)

It is not easy to secure a placement role, especially with big firms (FTSE500, for example), however, it is possible if you have done sufficient preparation and actively applied to all of the opportunities you are interested in. I applied to a lot of different roles and finally got my offer at Stellantis as a UK Supply Chain Planner. It was a great placement year and it helped me to become commercially aware and I gained many transferable skills.

Due to Covid-19, my placement was done remotely, it was difficult at the beginning in terms of training and induction, but due to the help from my team and managers, I picked things up quickly and started to work independently.

As a Supply Chain Planner, I managed suppliers with over one million euros in monthly sales from many different countries including Turkey, Poland and China. I also prepared different reports for management on a daily and/or weekly basis. Due to the nature of the job (mostly liaising with our clients online via conference meetings), working from home was not a huge issue for us. My transferable skills have improved and one of the benefits of working for a multi-national firm is that there are so many experienced colleagues that you can reach out to for help, I worked with different teams in different countries, such as France, Spain and Germany, and it was a pleasure to work with a recognised firm like Stellantis because of the professional environment.

My recommendations

The placement experience was beneficial and helped me to gain a better understanding of business’ operations and positively contributed to my studies. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend undergraduate students to consider the opportunities available.

For those that are looking for placement opportunities, I would highly recommend you get in touch with our great placement team and have your CV checked by them and arrange mock interviews with them when needed. You can also use the e-placement website to check the vacancies out there as the placement team update it regularly.

In my experience, I would recommend a bigger firm, as they might have a organised training system and resources available to you and therefore great personal development.

However, start ups and small businesses are also great and they can offer you a very special experience. 

I wish you very best of luck in your placement application and if I can do it, you can too!