International Gaming Financial Analyst Review

Warner Bros. has been a wonderful company to spend my first year of major work at, providing an invaluable experience into not just the Finance role itself, but the entire Gaming Industry. The work you carry out can be quite monotonous at times, however, this is well balanced with other more interesting work, while being surrounded by a vibrant team.

The team is like a family and treats each other with respect. Once arriving, I was taken in with open arms and spent the entire year closely working with the team on a daily basis. The neighbouring teams in the same office also get along really closely which is helpful to build good working relationships.

Support is always available when needed by both your supervisor and your manager. I never felt like I was on my own with any task and any issues I had were normally swiftly answered by one of my colleagues. If you are given any new tasks which you haven't completed before, they are normally well explained, giving you a good chance of completing the tasks to the required standard.

Although the role is a placement role, you will be treated like a real employee in an important job. Because of this, the workload can get quite big, often having to balance multiple tasks incoming from members in management or other territories and prioritising which is most important to complete first. I often had a schedule of what I needed to complete, which was completely thrown out the window within the first few hours of the day after I had received other tasks. However, it is manageable to balance this by working hard.

I was given a large amount of responsibility during my time here, updating several important reports which were then sent out to senior colleagues and used to answer critical decisions. I was also given several projects as a part of the role, requiring me to create several new reports which again, were sent to senior colleagues. The role is based around providing analysis and insight to other colleagues so much of what you do is used in a high regard.

The role allowed me to improve significantly on both my technical and personal skills. Through daily use of Excel, I have learnt several new formula and techniques within the software which I wouldn't have learnt during my course and will be useful for me in my final year of university. I also attended an Excel training course which further enhanced these skills. Warner Bros. scheduled various training sessions, which allowed me to improve on personal skills such as communication, work management and prioritisation and understanding areas I need to improve. These skills will all be useful in future roles and especially when applying for future roles.

The atmosphere within the office is good, with a lot of friendly conversation amongst and between teams. Everybody gets along which provides a good working environment with the team often going out regularly for lunch. On some days, if many people are out of office on events, the office can be on the quiet side but this is rare.

The placement is highly organised with a clear structure evident from the first experience of the assessment day before the role had even started. The organisation has a strong professional feel and I have always known exactly what my job role was and what was required of me, along with what other colleagues in the office's job roles were. There is a set structure to when certain calls or meetings take place which is also useful as you can work your day around these events.

The company invested heavily within me, scheduling multiple training courses which were extremely beneficial in improving my skills and providing insight into events within the company also. The company also funded for me to attend one off-site training course early into the placement, which allowed me to learn some skills which would be useful to know for the role itself.

I would happily come back to work with the company if offered to do so after graduating due to enjoying my year of placement here so much. However, the prospects of this happening are slim as in order for me to be able to be offered a job here, a member of my team will likely have to leave in order to create a space for me.

The benefit of Warner Bros. hiring so many placement students on a yearly basis is that you are surrounded by many colleagues of the same age and with same interests to you. This makes it very easy to organise events together and due to working in the heart of London, there are many options in order to socialise.

London is an expensive place to live, often paying high prices for little things. Fortunately, there are one or two options nearby for cheap alternatives to food and drink if you are particular struggling for money. Socialising/nightlife is often expensive, paying a premium due to being within London. However, if you manage your budget, it is easy to keep on top of.

The nightlife is very good, due to being able to easily travel to multiple areas of London in a short period of time. Covent Garden, Camden Town and Farringdon are just examples of places that are within 20 minutes of where I work which all have a wide selection of bars/clubs you can attend and are normally open until the early hours of the morning.

There were various opportunities to get involved in outside of work. A large amount of the interns got involved with charity work such as taking part in 'Sleep Out' in order to raise money for some local and major charities. I was also offered the opportunity to attend Gamescom, a large gaming event held in Germany.