Steven Szoltysek

Country of origin: United Kingdom

Placement: Bupa International

As a Project Support Assistant in a fast-paced, rapidly growing international operation, it was my role to support project managers and business analysts in the delivery of international projects.

I was responsible for the planning and resourcing of IT projects. As well as this I managed the IT aspects of Bupa International’s project portfolio management software, acting as a key link between IT and the rest of the business in terms of reporting and communication. I had to report on the monthly performance of the team, finding out capitalisation and utilisation rates, to name a few. The role shows how project management methods and theories are actually used in the workplace.

A highlight of the placement involved working on an Egypt Office move whereby I was responsible for delivering the final IT items that were needed in Bupa Egypt, to ensure their offices were fit for purpose and to enable them to operate successfully.

This not only gave me experience of being a business analyst, but also gave me experience of having to work internationally with other countries, adapting to cultural differences, time differences and language barriers. I loved going out to Egypt, a country I have never been to before, and installing the equipment and making sure all requirements were met – as well as being a tourist.

I also enjoyed having exposure to how other functions operate. For example I helped manage the end-to-end recruitment process of finding my replacement, giving me excellent human resources knowledge.

I also enjoyed attending charity events and team-building days such as helping to build an educational area for children at an animal sanctuary and organising a Christmas party. Running a pilot project to test if some ‘SoftPhones’ software was suitable to use in our teams was also interesting. Brighton (where the placement is based) is an amazing city to live in, too.