Throughout work placement there were many ups and downs, most of the ups being the people I met and the experiences I got to have, and most of the downs being a lack of communication and micro-managing managers. Throughout my summer on placement, I learned many things (resilience being the primary example), I was taught exactly what it was like to deal with a challenging person. As well as learning how to set my own boundaries and handle my ever-growing anxiety towards a real adult job. For this reflection I will be following the Graham Gibbs’ (1988) model below to evaluate how I overcame the challenges I experienced when working on placement and on Silverpoint.

While most of my other peers have been doing work placement throughout the year, I had finished my 100 hours by the time the first class of third year started. I feel this was helpful for me as it not only gave me something productive to do with my summer, but it saved me time throughout my final year of university. That being said, if I was to do work placement again, I feel it would be more beneficial for my learning experience if I had to focus on it weekly as opposed to having it finished before the year started. As well as that I’d have made more detailed notes on the experience, as the notes I did make were very simple about each day I was there, and it left me feeling unprepared for the beginning of the year and this module in general. While I did note down and keep track of the hours I worked and whether I was close to completing my 100 hours, I didn’t note down what I learned or any specific experiences I had on set and am working completely off my memory for this reflection.

The job started around the end of July, and it was very intense very quickly. I found the actual job easy enough due to it being mostly admin, however, the challenging part of the job was figuring out how to appropriately talk to people within the industry as well as setting my own boundaries within the job. This is something I struggled with on placement with EnterYes, as the communication side of that job was less than preferable. While I was used to everything around this production being last minute, I was not as mentally prepared to handle challenging people within the industry as everyone I had met up until then had been understanding of my student status and was accommodating for me. When presented with my manager for the job I realised I was in for a hard summer, as while my communication with Kris (the owner of EnterYes) had been mutual and respectful, my supervisor in Silverpoint expected a lot more from me than Kris did. I did try my best to meet the expectations that were there for me, however I quickly became burnt out and hard to communicate with. I had briefly lost the excitement for placement as it became a tiring and repetitive.

So how would I have approached this differently? I would have set my own boundaries sooner than I did. Much like the beginning of my placement with EnterYes, I was too afraid to voice my concerns and boundaries at risk of ruining the opportunity I had been given. While I was terrified to speak up about how burnt-out I was, I did learn resilience when dealing with difficult people within the industry, I learned quickly that biting my tongue was the best option in order to continue looking professional. All of this led me to where I am now, with a newfound respect for everyone who works in the industry for dealing so well with the challenging people. In future, despite being inexperienced and at entry level, I will be trying to be more honest about my mental stability within a job and be more open, as when I eventually did speak up about my issues they were fixed almost immediately – and in hindsight, I’m not quite sure why I felt so afraid to mess up in my first entry level job, as mistakes are normal, and they are to be learned from. In future I will be putting less pressure on myself to succeed past my own mental capability, as that leads to worse performance and a lack of professionalism (I cried in front of my line manager).

The two months I spent on placement/working on Silverpoint were the most beneficial ones of my 2021, as I don’t regret any of the decisions I made to get there. I have learned a lot since starting placement and I owe most of it to EnterYes. I hope to take the skills and lessons I learned on my final year placement into the working world post-graduation, as well as hopefully not get too burnt out by the end.