Indirect Buying Placement Student Review

Day to day activities include engaging with stakeholders about possible internal orders within the value of 20-100k. Using powerpoint and excel to aid the data analysts. The main goal of the team is to try and save the company money so another part of the day is finding multiple suppliers for an ongoing project.

I was given responsibility of looking after my own projects after following the work of team members which was exciting and a great learning experience. I have been able to connect with stakeholders all over Cummins and this had given me a broad knowledge of procurement as well as project management.

My overall level of the understanding of how a business works internally has grown as well as the extended knowledge about procurement. Within my time I have completed my Certified Procurement Professional which Cummins helped me to do. My excel knowledge has advanced massively since the start of my time at Cummins which has been because of the team support and using it everyday as well as internal training courses provided.

I was given lots of support within my role with 1:1 meetings with my manager weekly and a team meetings everyday, in which we discussed projects. If I ever needed any support, help was always given either by the team or by management.

The company culture was fantastic. Everyone not just the team I was in was friendly. All employees that I had met personally had the mindset of great teamwork, fairness, equality and diversity. Everyone that I worked with on projects had great communication and was a helping hand especially when I first started, as it is always daunting being a new placement student. All fears went away very quickly with such a fantastic working culture.

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement year, so much so I am staying on part time whilst I complete my degree.

Yes