Students

“Working at Development at Work Australia for my student placement was a great experience. During my time there I was able to help job seekers develop their resumes as well as increase my confidence in working one on one with people which was something I lacked in. Bridget was a great mentor and exposed me to a network of people to help me further my HR career. It was an absolute pleasure to work alongside Bridget and work within the business.” Sara Boromisa (2018)

– Placement here is fun and flexible – Sara and Paula working together at the beach on placement

“It has been an absolute pleasure working with you at Development at Work Australia for my placement. You have been so kind and helpful and I am going to miss seeing you…I am incredibly grateful for everything you have taught me, and for all the amazing experience you have given me. We will definitely keep in touch!” Cass Pollifrone (2018)

“I was grateful to do counselling placement with Bridget at Development at Work Australia   She gave me a free hand sourcing and engaging clients for the 8 months while I was under her supervision.  I feel the experience improved my insights into working with people that were trying to better their lives.” Stewart Glass,  ACAP student 2017-2018

“My placement at Development at Work Australia could not be described as anything short of worthwhile.  It was one of my first insights into the HR industry, and Bridget accommodated to my relatively hectic timetable. Bridget also consistently encouraged participation as a co-facilitator in her workshops (e.g. resume writing, interview skills, wellbeings etc.), and I believe that being able to take on this role has equipped me with a range of skills which has demonstrated to be valuable beyond this placement. This practical experience has also allowed me to interact with a variety of populations (e.g. job seekers, HR managers etc.), which again, speaks volumes about the breadth of Bridget’s knowledge and business sense.

Over the course of this placement, Bridget skilfully empowered me to achieve the tasks set, and was always willing to provide feedback when necessary. Bridget often ensured that the tasks set were aligned with what I wanted to get out of the placement – a testament to her genuine interest in my personal and professional growth. My sincere recommendation to take on this placement could honestly not be conveyed within this single testimony.”
Mandy Ma (2016)

“Undertaking a placement was such an important part of my career path and Bridget made my experience easy where a lot learning took place. The placement was very hands on and enabled me to do a lot of the learning for myself. Bridget was a great mentor and she gave excellent guidance and room for self-advancement. I am normally a nervous public speaker but after sitting this placement I am confident in speaking in public, including in front of business people. The workshops were a great experience that gave me a real insight into HR areas while also enhancing on my skills. Conducting a wellbeing’s workshop with Bridget was the stand out for me as we were able to put ideas together as to what would be in the workshop and how it would run. Teaching individuals in job seeker skills was also a great experience as it enabled me to update my resume, cover letter and skills to do with interview techniques and networking, while also feeling confident to teach individuals in these areas. Overall I had an excellent experience and I would recommend this placement to any student that is seeking a real hands on experience. Bridget is an excellent mentor and I hope to do business with her in the future.”
Sarah Kyle, Flinders University student (2015)

“Undertaking my placement at Development at Work Australia has been such a great experience. Bridget is an excellent mentor and very pleasant to work with. I started off the placement with absolutely no desire or confidence to ever present workshops or coach others and finished with a new-found confidence thanks to Bridget’s encouragement. The placement is a very hands on experience, allowing us to learn more about the business and HR side of psychology as opposed to just sitting back and watching Bridget do all the work. The different types of workshops that Bridget runs also means that there aren’t repetitive, tedious days and you won’t be bored. Reviewing/learning content, editing workbooks, practicing exercises, writing demonstrations, all tasks we completed throughout the placement that really expanded our knowledge. Overall, an excellent placement to go to for hands on experience with so many valuable learning opportunities (and also a great view!).”
Flora from Uni SA (2015)

“Development at Work Australia has been such an eye opening placement experience, it Introduced me to the business side of psychology and helped me understand how vital some of the psychological underpinnings can be to recruitment and training. I was able to understand two completely different paradigms, firstly training HR representatives and recruiters on how to increase validity in their interviewing skills, secondly I was able to work with and help understand the perspectives of job seekers (which can be extremely relevant to graduating university students) helping them find their passions and then assimilating related knowledge, resume skills and interview skills to help them achieve their goals. All in all it was an experience that really put to work all the theory learnt through the degree, and I couldn’t think of a way to get more out of a placement experience”
Stevi Newman (2014)

“Placement with Bridget at Development at Work Australia was a stand-out amongst my placements in two important ways. Firstly, the amount of time actually spent with Bridget engaging in work and learning from her was far greater than in other placements. My other supervisors have been great, but realistically they only spent a few hours with me per week because their work drew them onto other tasks. Bridget probably spent about half of the time with me because, for the most part, she and I were working together on the same projects. Don’t worry though, she’s not ‘in-your-face’, it’s more about collaboration and working together in a fun way! That brings me to the second stand out feature of the placement. Bridget is all about Happiness At Work and I am pleased to say she does practice what she preaches, making work enjoyable – because it is varied and you have genuine input – and relaxed while still being productive. At the end of days on placement I often felt slightly guilty, “Did I actually do any work today?” – but then I thought about what I’d achieved that day and realised I’d done as much as on any other placement – it just didn’t seem like it! Highly recommended placement if you actually want to ‘do stuff’, talk to real people in real situations, be challenged, and learn from it.”
Warren Rerden (2009) Final Year, Master of Psychology (Work & Organisational), UniSA.

“I would recommend this placement to any Masters of Organisational Psychology student. Bridget pushed me to take ownership and be accountable for different parts of projects, and this helped me to feel as though I was a valuable and contributing member of the team. It was fantastic to see (someone) working in the organisational area that had such a passion for evidence-based practice and who rated my learning opportunities as a high priority.”
Kayla Johnson (2010 – 2011) – University of Adelaide.

“As a placement student at Development at Work Australia  I gained hands-on experience that I can use to ignite my career in human resource management. I was actively involved in workshops that helped job seekers gain interview skills and build emotional resilience in a tough job market. I was also fortunate enough to gain some experience in helping organizations develop effective skills around teamwork at Bridget’s ‘Building a Happy, High Performing Workplace’ workshop. Bridget provided a flexible working (and learning) environment with plenty of support during my placement. Since I was involved in dealing with real situations, I felt that the challenges that I came across enabled me to also develop the confidence that I previously lacked.”
Chris Galon (2012) Masters in Human Resources student – University of South Australia, 2012.

To see what other students say about their placement experience with us – scroll down the page!