If you have been keeping up to date with SilverDoor's latest news you will know that we have become a global company with five multinational offices around the world. The SilverDoor Academy is a dynamic placement programme that operates in two of these offices, with a record number of eleven placement students in the year 2018/19. All of the current placement students are located in our largest offices in London and Lancaster. In late February and early March, we were given the opportunity to have a placement switch for the week.
The placement switch was an opportunity that allowed us to experience the atmosphere in a different office, gave us the opportunity to explore a new city and allowed us to see where our fellow placements lived.
We headed up north from London to Lancaster on Saturday the 2nd of March, after arriving late on a Saturday evening into a rather rainy Lancaster we were greeted by Operations Director, Imogen who took us to the placement house to get settled in. After a lazy Sunday morning, Hannah and I headed out to explore the city and enjoyed a brilliant roast dinner at The Toll House Inn. I was excited for my week to begin and spend a week with the other members of the marketing team, so I could get a better understanding of what their day to day roles included.
The week flew by and I was back in London before I knew it, but I thought I would share the top moments from my trip and find out what the other placements thought of the switch.
One of the best moments of my trip was heading out on Thursday evening to get fish and chips with Hannah. You can’t beat fish and chips with mushy peas and curry sauce, am I right? I also loved spending time with the members of my team that I don’t get to see on a daily basis however talk to most days on the phone or via email. One day I got to sit down with Lorraine and she ran through what she does as a Digital Marketing Specialist, this was definitely such a worthwhile experience as I learnt so much about PPC advertising and Google Ads. This is an area of marketing I don’t get to experience much in the London office but something I think I may be interested in getting into in the future, since coming back from the placement switch and expressing my interest in this side of marketing, I have been able to do a lot more on the technical side of marketing and learnt so much already. Some of my other favourite things about the placement switch were getting to go to the Lancaster Markets on Wednesday, at lunchtime we headed down to what can only be described as the legendary ‘Falafel Man’, where I have a falafel salad box, which was amazing. If you are in Lancaster on a Wednesday or a Saturday, I highly recommend you head down to the markets as there is a selection of brilliant street food stalls.
I really enjoyed my time in Lancaster, there was a very friendly culture in the office and a peaceful atmosphere in the city. I didn’t love the constant rain so much but it was a fun week and such a worthwhile experience.
I have spoken to a few of the other placement students to find out how they found the placement switch went and this is what they have to say:
Youssef, Business Insights had this to say, “It was a really nice experience as I had a chance to interact with all of my colleagues that I have been communicating with for the last nine months.”
Sarah, Accounts Payable Support, said this about her time in the London office, “It was a good experience working in a different office and working with different people. I also really enjoyed being able to explore London after work in the evenings.”
Andy, Accounts Receivable Support, said, “It helped me to understand the Payables side of finance, which I think has helped me in my day-to-day work, now that I am back in London. I now understand the overall picture of finance a lot better.”
Overall, I believe the first SilverDoor placement switch went very well and hopefully it’s something that can be implemented again in the years to come.
