Last week, Josh Fry, a 15 year old student at Wimbledon College, joined O’Neill & Brennan UK for his work experience placement.
Josh, talks us through his week,
"I worked across multiple departments within the company and was lucky to meet so many amazing people and experience what their work involves on a day-to-day basis. On the first day I travelled from Kingston to Camden with thousands of other commuters. When I arrived, I was greeted by the team and the atmosphere was amazing straight away. I was given a tour of the office and shown to my desk and immediately begun working. During the first day I learnt how to use the computer system, build project files, use LinkedIn and then began searching for candidates for live roles. Thank you to Conor, Ned, Hayley, and Alfie (who has asked me to mention his legend status!) Thanks to the team for our lunch at Nando’s which was great and beats the school canteen.
On Tuesday I made my way to Potters Bar and met one of the current Managing Directors (Danny Brennan) and the original founder (Dan O'Neill) who both made me very welcome. My day involved working with the finance team and Matheau where we updated all the company cars costs , tax, and MOT's. Afterwards I looked at time sheets for the Credit Control team helping Katy. At the end of the day, I was invited to the Vistry Partnerships annual Dragon Boat Race in Surrey Quays which I managed to arrive at on time from Potters Bar much to my Dad’s surprise.
Wednesday I worked with Carolanne in marketing where we worked on social media posts, designing marketing messages and how to use LinkedIn.
Thursday was back to Potters bar to work with Giri and Ammad in the IT team and learn how important keeping the IT systems working are to a company like O’Neill & Brennan. I was also lucky enough to sit in a director’s review of the IT systems and hear all the points about how to get the most from the technology systems in the company.
Friday was possibly the highlight of the week as Alfie and I were invited onto a Vistry Partnerships housing project where they are building 2000 apartments. The Project Director, Brett Fennell, was brilliant and walked us around the whole project for over 2 hours and showed us two phases one nearly finished and one just starting. Brett was really keen to show me concrete piling works, RC Frames, curtain walling, brick work, M&E, setting out and grid lines, logistics planning and design. After the visit, Alfie bought me a full English breakfast and then we went to the O’Neill & Brennan Social Value Football Tournament with 14 teams competing. I was lucky to play for Barratt and Kier and managed to score a good goal.
Working for O'Neill & Brennan was an amazing experience, and I am very grateful to the company and everyone who gave up their time to work with me. I would love to work there again if the opportunity ever comes up."
