Year in Industry student Review

Item: Year in Industry student at Network Rail
Rating: 4.2
Author: Anonymous

at Network Rail

Placement (10 Months+)

Accounting, Finance

Manchester

Review Submitted: August 2026

Overall Rating

4.2 /5

The Overall Rating is the average of all the ratings given in each category. We take those individual ratings and combine them into one final score!

4/5 - Overview of Role

5/5 - Skills Development

4/5 - Support and Guidance

3.5/5 - Company Culture

4/5 - Overall Experience

5/5 - Future Career Prospects

Overview of Role

Please give an overview of your role and what this involves on a day-to-day basis.

Management accounting, summarising monthly finances, building reports, stakeholder management, year end reporting

Were you given much responsibility during your placement / internship?

a fair amount. enough to do my work independently

Please rate how meaningful the work you were doing was

4/5

Skills Development

Have you learnt any new skills, or developed your existing skills?

Yes, I have learnt what working in finance is really like. What it means to be an accounting, excel skills and tonnes more. Coming from an economics degree, everything I have learnt has been new to me! Furthermore, the personal growth is something I want to bring into my final year

How would you rate the training provided during your experience?

5/5

How would you rate your development of industry-specific skills during the experience?

5/5

How would you rate your development of personal / soft skills during the experience?

5/5

Please rate how these skills have helped you in your career development

5/5

Support and Guidance

How much support and guidance did you receive during your placement / internship?

A sufficient amount. We were assigned 'buddies', there was opportunities to meet/work with the other new entrants (graduates, year in industries and apprentices). In addition to this, we have a finance new entrants team which setup events and provided opportunities to develop further, personally and professionally.

How would you rate the support and guidance from your line manager?

4/5

How would you rate the support and guidance from the wider team?

4/5

Company Culture

What was the company culture and general atmosphere like?

Chatty, fun, honest. although I did get bored at times and didn't always feel as involved as I wanted to be

How would you rate the inclusiveness of the culture?

5/5

How would you rate the social opportunities?

5/5

How would you rate the diversity initiatives?

1/5

How would you rate the charity, sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives?

3/5

Overall Experience

To what extent did you enjoy your placement / internship?

I quite liked it, I would come back and recommend it to anyone. It did not match the job description though and I noticed that the ones based in Milton Keynes had a very different experience. The 'layout' varied.