Sales Intern Review

I enjoyed my work placement at Intel. I was given a lot of responsibility and felt I developed continually throughout my placement, as well as being offered various work benefits. The culture at Intel is relaxed but focused, and in my opinion is a good place for an intern to work.

At Intel I felt I was given jobs which had a real consequence on the performance of my team & on a larger scale- which if not completed, or delayed, could lead to a noticeable difference in the companies performance. Due to this, I felt that the staff valued our input & treated us as full time employees.

Whilst I received support and guidance from my management & colleagues, and I always had the opportunity to ask questions, I was part of a smaller team which meant there was not always the chance to ask questions. This did help develop my independent thinking however.

On a daily basis I was quite busy- although at the start I had days which were quiet and I became bored, later on in the placement I was given a lot more responsibility and work. To this point, at times I was too busy and ended up working too far beyond working hours.

I was given a lot of responsibility during my placement. I was given the opportunity to make decisions which will have a long lasting impact on working practices at the company, and on several occasions was asked to cover for more senior staff. This was very beneficial to the placement.

I believe that the skills I have learnt on placement are far more valuable than anything I have learnt academically. Personally, I feel that some skills learnt at university are of very limited value, whereas skills learnt on placement are much more valuable. I feel much more able to enter a working environment upon graduation,

The atmosphere in the office changes depending on the area in which you work, and it is more relaxed than I had expected. The atmosphere was slightly subdued due to internal changes within the company, which varied throughout the year. It was perhaps 'duller' than other placements.

The internship was very easy to set up, as there was little to do beforehand (i.e. admin) from my side. In terms of my role, I would have liked to know more about my responsibilities beforehand, but due to internal changes at the company, this changed continually throughout the placement, which gave me new experiences.

Intel has a lot of mandatory trainings (a lot on legal, some on products, on the company culture, on the corporate strategy etc), of which some were useful, but some were of very limited value in my opinion. Open forums with senior staff were very interesting and provided some development opportunities.

There are some opportunities for future employment with the company, however these are in limited areas, and not in all job roles. I feel that there is the chance to achieve an offer of graduate employment, and people who impress will be offered this, but I am not yet convinced that the jobs offered are in areas that are of interest to me.

There are ~50 other interns working in the same office, which provides the opportunity for a good social scene, and during the first/last month of the placement year there are many events/activities on offer. There is a social committee which provides these activities, and various 'non-intern specific' activities (e.g. golf, wine tasting, football).

Swindon is not necessarily a cheap place to live, but there are opportunities to find cheap accommodation & social activities. The issue is less the price of socializing, but the availability and range of social areas in the town. Swindon is not a very 'busy' place, and it does not take long to try all of the local social activities.

Swindon's nightlife is poor. There are 2 regular 'clubs', one of which is regularly busy, and another which is smaller and not so busy. There is a street of bars in Old Town, but again this is very limited. With a good social group it can be enjoyable, but the nightlife is dull. It is located near to Bristol/London/Reading where the nightlife is better.

The company runs a social committee which puts on social events for company staff, such as wine tasting, golf, football and music/theater tickets. As Swindon is not a very busy town, the opportunities for outside of work activities is limited, although the company sometimes puts on 'team-building' activities which give the opportunity to try new experiences.