Marketing Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my work placement because of the variety of opportunities that were given to me; attending events abroad, managing my own projects, leading the student placement campaign, and working on projects with the Marketing Team. Everyone at Mentor Graphics have been extremely friendly, supportive and experienced individuals which I believe has highly contributed to my placement year being successful and most enjoyable.

I certainly felt valued as an equal team member because I was able to freely contribute in meetings to share my ideas, lead projects and was given responsibilities at events and on particular projects where I was able to make my own decisions and help achieve successful results. Sometimes, they would include me in their own projects when they felt social media could have an impact on their campaign, which was really valuable because this helped me communicate my ideas and to think on the spot.

I had a huge amount of support from my team and manager because I had weekly review meetings where I was able to discuss any ideas or ask questions on particular tasks. It was a place for discussion to make sure I was able to get the most out of my placement year. In addition to this, I sat with my part of the Marketing Team which enabled me to ask for any advice or support on ideas/projects when I needed it. They would almost every time help me straight away on the job.

I was busy almost every day on placement because I strive to challenge myself and actively seek out ways to develop our social media strategies and/or activities. I almost always had my day-to-day tasks with 1/2 larger projects running in the background, which to me was the right balance. I like change and wouldn't want to always be doing routinely tasks, which is why I like to keep busy and make sure I always have something to do.

I was given masses of responsibility because I was taken to 2 events abroad where customers and high-profile employees attended, managed social media (with additional help from my manager who approved tasks and social media posts), took on large projects and led the social media campaign myself. Overall, I feel I have been able to freely make my own ideas happen, once my managers had approved them, I would be able to research and implement ideas in order to add to the success of the Marketing Team's efforts.

My organisational skills and time management are going to help me best when it come to going back to university; my love for lists has grown because that's how I now organise my work load. Working full-time, 8 hours a day, has made me realise how many hours we have university, so I feel that this will encourage me to get into a routine at University. I believe this placement has developed all professional skills, in particular my communicative skills because I have spoken to high-profile employees from across the corporation, from Vice Presidents to Directors to Managers and colleagues whom of which made me feel most comfortable. Therefore, I feel this will help me when I come to interview scenarios and future professional experiences.

The general atmosphere was fairly quiet when people were concentrating and getting on with work. Everyone was extremely friendly, the marketing team would all take part in the coffee and tea runs, there was an on-going supply of drinks, fruit and biscuits! All-in-all it was a well balanced atmosphere of work, concentration and conversation and laughter.

My favourite part of the organisation of this placement was that I felt I could experiment and take any opportunity as it came. I felt the meetings were well organised in order to keep my projects flowing and make sure I was managing with my workload.

The company 100% invested me because they allowed me to co-run events abroad, being able to meet many people from around the world and within the corporation. I was able to attend webinars in order to increase my knowledge of social media and take time to research social media and its developments. By being pro-active and wanting to seek knowledge in order to learn more about social media with the purpose of improving social media gave me the knowledge and personal development. Also, the fact that the company gave me tasks to complete that were outside of social media and more involved with content marketing enabled me to develop in a different area of Marketing. If you are willing to learn and use your creative abilities as a marketing intern you will grow and develop on the job.

I would very much like to work for mentor again in future employment, but this is something I am not sure about whether it is possible for me to have a role there. This might be spoken about closer to the end of placement but at the moment they don't currently have any graduate marketing placements that I could apply for.

I would say there is a slight social scene if you make it, for instance, I have been to meals and drinks with fellow placement students and colleagues. We would go out for birthday lunches and celebrate particular events/ occasions.

This work placement was near where I live, so I was able to commute to work from my home every day. So I didn't have to rent or pay any bills, but Towcester is pretty close to both Milton Keynes and Northampton, about 20-30 minutes drive.

The nightlife in Towcester isn't overly exciting, but there are a few pubs and restaurants you can go to after work with your work colleagues. However, depending on where you live you can go to the nightlife in Northampton Town Centre or Milton Keynes where you will find more of a nightlife, it might just be a bit of an expensive taxi ride, depending on where you live that is.

Not particularly, but if you wanted to do activities outside of work you could certainly start some up. We did have the christmas party which was extremely fun and a good social event to get to know colleagues outside of the work place.