July 27, 2022, by Rebekah

From Volunteer to Employee! – My placement at The Pythian Club

by Nicole Gleeson 2nd year Geography with Business student

In my second year I applied for a placement at The Pythian Club as a HR/ Finance assistant. I was drawn to this opportunity since I was unsure of what career path I wanted to pursue after university, so I wanted to develop new skills and gain experience.

The Pythian club is a community interest organisation which provides support and guidance for young children & young people and their families. The Pythian Club strives to ensure children & young people are given positive opportunities and support with regard to their education, environment and personal well-being. The Pythian Club believes in encouraging children & young people to access positive opportunities and achieving their fullest potential.

The interview process was very straight forward, and I was interviewed by Kelly Puleston (my now boss) who is one of the nicest people I have ever met. The interview was very informal, and I felt as if I was talking to someone that I had known for years. I was delighted to be offered the role during the interview.

My role in HR included managing onboarding of staff and ensuring that the relevant forms were completed, ensuring employee details were up to date and managing HR email correspondence. I was also responsible to undertake DBS applications and acquiring all relevant employee documentation for this process. I was given the freedom to explore BrightHR which is a website that The Pythian Club pay for to organise HR matters. This aspect of the placement included creating new employees’ profile, showing employees how to navigate their account, uploading payslips and calculating and publishing annual leave entitlement.

My favourite part of the internship was that no two days were the same and each week there was always new exciting news and people to meet. On my induction day BBC news were even at The Pythian Club filming! I also loved the dress code being very casual so I could even wear tracksuits into my placement. At The Pythian Club I was treated with such a high level of respect and there was a culture that volunteers and employees were treated the same. I was also assigned a high level of authority in my role where I was encouraged to present my own ideas and perspectives. This enabled me to shape various aspects of the club throughout my placement.

I loved every minute of volunteering at The Pythian Club so much that I have continued to stay, and I am now a paid employee with the title ‘University Lead’. My role now includes organising placements, including those offered by the Faculty of Social Sciences. I am very excited to be organising and interviewing candidates for placements especially since I have been in the same position before. I hope to offer future students who undergo placements at The Pythian Club an experience as special and valuable as mine was.

Pythian Club details: https://www.thepythianclub.co.uk/

 

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