Marketing Analyst Review

I had the best time during the internship; the company really made an effort to ensure that the programme was structured in a way that would allow each intern to gain as much as they wanted to. As well as enjoying the working and learning side of it, I also enjoyed the events that had been planned for us; we had several social events for interns and within our wider teams and also had the opportunity to take part in a community day.

Right from the start I was made to feel like a valued member of the team. Everyone was very friendly and made time to talk with me about their roles in the business. I felt particularly valued when colleagues would come to me to ask questions when they needed information related to the area I was working on – even if I wasn’t always able to answer!

I could not have asked for more support and guidance. I received support and guidance from colleagues within my team and wider team, as well as from my own manager, my director and from my vice president too. They all made the effort to get to know me and ask about my project and offer advice and insights. My manager was also really good at striking a balance between offering all the support I needed and letting me work autonomously and use my initiative to complete tasks.

The work load varied day to day because no two days were the same. There were some quieter days and some crazy busy days; my project was very much a process and involved collaborating with several external agencies so there were times when it was a case of waiting to hear back from them but there were also times when I suddenly ended up with a lot to do within a short time frame. I would say that in general I had quite a balanced work load and I found it to be the right amount to keep me occupied and challenged.

I was definitely given a lot of responsibility and found myself having to manage my time and my tasks very carefully in order to achieve objectives. I had a specific role within my team and was solely responsible for completing the tasks I was given. It was not at all a case of being given a “made up” project to fill the time; my project was genuinely important to help achieve wider business goals and I managed to achieve some real, tangible results.

I really feel that everything I learned on the internship will benefit me massively as I complete my studies and begin my career. I now have another perspective to view assignments from and I have real, professional experience to draw on. Being able to apply some of my education in a professional job really helped me to deepen my understanding and gain further learning.

The atmosphere was great because everyone was super friendly and seemed to genuinely enjoy going to work! It felt quite relaxed and reasonably informal because the managers and directors weren’t separated or inaccessible to us, everyone sat and talked together. Another thing is that Amex places a lot of emphasis on having a good work/life balance and so the office wasn’t full of stressed out people working mad hours; rather, it felt like everyone was well looked after.

Overall the internship was well organised as there were training sessions and events planned on the calendar to ensure all the interns would come away having learnt as much as possible. My individual project was also well organised and I was given a thought out timeline so that I could complete it in the time I had.

All interns had training sessions so that we could learn about other areas of the business and gain an understanding of how the company operates as a whole. Also, in the first few days, all interns attended sessions on Excel and presentation skills, which turned out to be invaluable during the rest of the internship. I feel like the company certainly put a lot of thought into how best they could help us develop in a relatively short period of time.

I was fortunate enough to receive a graduate offer and am very much looking forward to accepting it. Amex was very clearly a company that puts a lot of emphasis on looking after and developing its employees and it is a company that I really think will provide a great environment to learn and progress in.

Absolutely! We had a lot of fun social events planned for us, including a trip to the London Eye and a river cruise on the Thames. Aside from that we all made an effort to organise drinks, dinners and nights out amongst ourselves too. There was probably at least one thing going on each week and as well as this we each had other events with our own teams and departments too.

I was fortunate in that I didn’t need to relocate for the job, which meant that my cost of living was the same as it always is. I would say the cost of socialising was probably a little higher than usual but I would put this down to the frequency of the socialising. I was at the Victoria office so bars can be pricey in that area but probably no more than other central London areas. However, often if it was a team drinks there would be a company tab so actually you didn't have to pay for anything!

It was central London so there is no shortage of nightlife. You have everything from pubs and bars to late night clubs. The interns all went out quite a lot to various bars and clubs but for after work drinks with other colleagues we tended to stay at some of the local pubs and bars.

Amex has a host of clubs, societies and activities to get involved in. As the internship was just 10 weeks I didn’t actually end up joining any but the opportunity was there. I think some of the other interns joined in with some of the football activities outside of work.