PC Commercial Business Analyst Review

I really enjoyed my 13 months at HP. You are given work with a lot of responisbility and treated like a full time employee, but at the same time they are understanding that this is most interns first job and they are getting used to working in a business. It also has a very good social aspect to it, as there are 80 interns from HPE and HPI in the bracknell office, with lots of intern socials.

I felt highly valued by my colleagues. I had analyse our sales each week and present this to managers in each business area each week, who trusted my opinions and analysis. It helped that the Channel director and one of the sales managers were also HP intern over ten years ago.

My manager gave me loads of support. I worked in the channel sales team which is a very confusing side of the business, and my manager would spend a lot of time explaining why we do things the way we do them, rather than just telling me how it is. I was effectively getting one to ones each week on a business topic from someone with probably more real world business experience than most university lecturers.

At the start I was busy all the time as I was getting to grips with excel and all my daily tasks. towards the end of the internship i had figured out ways to speed up my daily task and had gone to other areas of the business to seek more work, and also to get my name about. There were odd occasions where you would have to stay late in order to complete some important work, but my manager always stressed it was important to work to live and not live to work.

I had to create the slides each week for my boss who presented to our director and other business managers. The director would then present those slides to his channel boss in EMEA and the MD of the UK. This means that if my slides are wrong the wrong information would go straight to the top. Also, when my manager wasn't able to join those meetings I would present to the director. I would also have to provide the figures for a lot of Quarterly Business Reviews for each of our partners and even helped create a slide for a review with the CEO when he visited the UK.

I have developed so much in analytics and have a lot more confidence in myself and how to act in business situations. It has helped me put so much context to what i learnt at university, and whenever there is something I don't understand I get someone with 10+ years of business experience to explain it to me, all in a context i can relate to. This is certainly the best way to learn anything, and will help me loads in final year as I will have real life examples.

The majority of the office is hot desking. This is good as us interns all sat near each other and were able to help each other. It also meant we could relax and be social. The office still has some way to go to be like google or a more sales orientated company, but they are trying to make it more young and fun all the time. recently they installed table football in the office.

Very well organised. HP have been running the intern scheme for the last 25 years and they have covered every angle. They have a month handover, where the previous intern teaches you your job. In that handover period they organize a halls for you to stay in at a discounted rate where you can meet other people that have started the internship and start to organize housing arrangement. They also have a very good mentor scheme, where you are paired with someone who helps you to get the most out of your time at HP.

HP have a great mentor scheme were you are paired with someone who helps you get the most out of your placement. Also, the whole hangover month meant that you were getting a 1 on 1 personal training for a whole month, going through everything you need to know.

Very appealing if you work hard! only negative is there isn't a grad scheme currently set up, However all that means is that you can jump straight back into a full time role instead of a grad, earning a lot more than a grad would. The negatives to this though are that they are not guaranteed jobs, so there will only be a full time role if people leave or the create new ones. This does tend to be the case, as 2 interns have come back this year from last year and 2 the year before. If you put yourself in good stead the chances are they will be able to create or change a role to fit you in, as they don't want good talent leaving.

Great social side. There are 80 interns in the Bracknell office from HPE and HPI, who all stay together in halls for the first month, with socials every Thursday. There is a social sec in HPE who is tasked with organising social events for the interns for the year, these include trips to Ascot, a Christmas boat party, a black tie summer ball, paintballing and many nights out. I have created friends for life from this placement. There was also a HP intern football team.

Rent was £320 a month in reading near the uni. We lived a six bed house that was very small. You start in July, so all the good houses would have been taken by the students so you sort of get what you get given and make do. We were lucky to get such cheap rent, a few interns had to go in 2 bed houses and pay up to £500 a month as there were not a lot of 5 bed houses left. Prices are cheaper than London but a Saturday night you'll be paying over £4 for a single vodka anywhere you go.

Lots of bars and clubs as its a university town. Saturday nights are a bit mainstream but they do have an SU which you can get in with your student ID, however this is a bit of a school disco but has cheaper drinks. You'll be able to have plenty of house parties with the other interns though.

There was a HPE Intern football team that i was involved in. There was also 2 Kick off socials each year with the company and also a channel drinks event each quarter with all of the channel team.