Customer Marketing Executive Intern Review

I had such a brilliant year at PRUK! Each week was totally different with new things happening all the time. There were so many opportunities to get involved with new projects which made my placement year really enjoyable. PRUK is such a fun and exciting place to work it's hard not to enjoy it. Plus the people that work at PRUK are so great that they mean you enjoy your working days even more.

I felt extremely valued by my colleagues, particularly my team. More or less daily my wider team told me what a great job I was doing and how important my help was to them. They asked me to assist with projects so often which made me feel that I was making a valued contribution to the team. Plus my line manager was extremely encouraging always made me feel that I was a real asset to her and the team.

I had weekly one to one meetings with my line manager where we could sit down and discuss anything that I was going on. Aside from this I always felt that I could (and did) approach my line manager outside of this time for assistance or advice on whatever I was working on. All the other members of the team were also brilliant in helping with any queries that I had or support I needed.

The vast majority of the time I had more than enough work to fill my day. My role meant that not only did I get work from my line manager and team but also other teams in the business which meant I always had something to do or knew that something was going to be delivered to my inbox for me to work on. However as with any job, there was the odd occasion where I wasn't as busy as normal, but I was very fortunate to be working on some ongoing projects which meant when this was the case I could focus on these instead.

I was given a lot of responsibility in my role which I really enjoyed. My main responsibility was ensuring that adverts went to print on time which involved managing the project from beginning to end when it was sent to the printers. This involved managing communications with various parties internally and externally, which given this was my first proper job I feel was a great opportunity.

I developed so many skills over the year that have really helped my studies. Having a "9-5" job engrained a different work ethic to what I had before. I now plan my days and what I'm going to study to ensure that I complete everything. Plus the role itself and extra training has helped me so much when deciding what to write for dissertation. This placement has really helped solidify what I'm interested in career wise and study wise.

The office itself is an amazing office, the way it's kitted out is unlike any office I've seen. This definitely allows for discussions to flow between everyone in the office easily. However working in a business where people have a lot of meetings externally and work from home means that every sometimes the office can be quiet.

Before even starting work I thought the interview process was seamless and throughout the whole process I was updated on where I was in the application process. When I started the role the initial inductions set up for me by HR were great and really helpful. I was introduced to my line manager on my second day and found that I had even more inductions planned which were already being organised.

Throughout the whole year I was given so many training opportunities. I was allowed to participate in nearly all of the same ones that the rest of my team took part in eventhough I was on a contract. Any additional training that I needed my line manager encouraged me to go on and investigate development areas as they arose. As such I think the company took a genuine interest in my year being as successful as possible.

I had such a brilliant year at PRUK that I would love to go back at some point. The company is such an exciting and evolving place to work that I know it would be very interesting. There is a great post-grad type scheme and the only reason I wouldn’t go back is if there wasn’t the roles available.

We all got on great and regularly had lunch together. Plus at company events we would be able to have a catch up and meet other people from each others department. However there were only 5 other placement students and we all lived in completely different directions which made it quite difficult to socialise of an evening. The few occasions that we did socialise we had a great time.

I didn't live in the area that I worked so couldn't really comment. In terms of socialising there are loads of different places to eat and drink. Some are reasonably priced and some not so much but then it's up to you where you spend your money. For me the more choice the better so some days I would go somewhere really cheap and then other days have a treat.

Again I didn't live in the area that I worked so couldn't really comment. Although with work we were taken to a few local bars which were really nice and we had meetings there during the day. There are so many bars and pubs along the high street that I'm sure there's a good variety.

There were a few times when colleagues started sports team or competitions which everyone seemed to enjoy - the table tennis tournament was entertaining. Though aside from that there weren't many others. There were after work events which were very frequent and really fun but that was always done through work.