Marketing Assistant Review

I really enjoyed my time at J&J. I joined at a challenging time for the company as it was going through a lot of global changes, yet I still enjoyed the type of work I was doing and the teams I was a part of. I found the year extremely valuable and insightful.

I was immediately welcomed into the team and was made to feel comfortable and at ease. I found it easy to ask team members questions and was not afraid to contribute to discussions. Even when liaising with more senior colleagues, I felt like my opinion was valid, valued and accepted by the team.

My first manager was field-based which was challenging as it was sometimes hard to contact him due to the nature of his job. However, an office-based mentor was soon assigned to me which meant I had someone I could contact easily with everyday questions and queries if my manager was unable to come into the office.

My workload massively varied throughout my time at J&J. I soon learnt that budget cuts meant that a lot of the projects I was working on were put on hold meaning I had much more spare time. This gave me the chance to reach out to other colleagues and become involved in projects that initially lay outside of my job role.

During my placement I was given real responsibility for real projects. I was given oversight of budget management and project role out, something that contributed greatly to my development. Leading on projects and being held responsible for their execution also meant that I was able to liaise with key stakeholders outside of my team.

The skills I have gained whilst on placement will prove invaluable when I return to university and in the future when applying to graduate schemes and jobs. I have been able to put a lot of knowledge gained at university into practice whilst on placement and have hugely developed my interpersonal skills which will help when applying for jobs.

The office I was based in was very laid back and friendly. Charity events including cake sales and barbecues were held on a regular basis meaning there was always a buzz and a lot of attention on helping others. The office was clean and modern… free fruit on a Wednesday was a real bonus too!

Overall my internship was well set up. However, it became clear that there were large disparities across the offices in terms of the ‘settling in’ stage. I believe that my personal transition into the role could have been smoother and a handover period with the previous intern would have been really insightful and useful.

I would very much like to return to J&J once I have finished my degree at university. I have thoroughly enjoyed my placement year and identify J&J as a company I would like to work for. As it stands, it is unclear whether there are graduate schemes available for the fields I am interested in. However, I would happily transition back into the business if an entry level job became available instead.

There were only a couple of interns based in the office I was in, meaning there was less of a ‘social scene’ than in some other offices where there is a greater amount of students. However, social events still occurred within teams, for example Christmas, Easter and leaving meals and the annual conference.