Home Entertainment Sales Apprentice Review

Warner are an incredibly welcoming and friendly company, meaning you become part of the culture and wider team very quickly. This created a positive and down-to-earth work environment which made the year incredibly enjoyable. Partner this with the fact you are working directly in the movie industry and are in contact with new, exclusive and premium content everyday.

I think entering the placement I worried I would be in the way almost, as I have felt in previous work placements, only there to do data entry and make tea! In reality, the amount of responsibility was great and if you didn't do your work, someone was going to get annoyed! It meant you felt a part of the team and that your work was directly helping the company and brand at large.

My initial team were incredibly helpful, clearly aware that as an intern you have little knowledge of the role and industry. I believe that if you constantly showed a desire to learn and develop your skills, the team would engaging and supporting you. The support continued throughout the year as well, constantly pushing you to try new things and expand your role beyond what you initially started.

My role was within the physical sales team, which is a department that is highly susceptible to ebbs-and-flows of busyness. There would be stretches were I would be very quiet, with little client contact or team support, but then there were very busy times, with numerous projects on the go and many presentations, meetings, and pitches all to organise and run. It really did vary, but when it is firing on all cylinders it is great!

As one would expect, the level of responsibility increased exponentially as the placement progressed. From the very start I was having direct relations with customers and had to forge out a relationship, but this became more serious as my junior account managing became more advanced. Similarly, by the end of the placement I was fully trusted with running presentations and creating my own projects. People relied on me everyday, but the trust and responsibility has to be earned.

It is too early to fully comment on how the skills and abilities have helped my degree, but aspects such as creating schedules, setting personal goals and creating trustful relationships with other people are very transferable skills. When entering third year at Uni, I fully expect to be a lot more focused and careful in my time management, whilst being more individually driven and confident when guidance and support may not be as strong as I'd like

The atmosphere at Warner Brothers was exceptional, not strictly formal and corporate at all. As a creative industry, there is a real sense of openness and friendliness within and between the teams and departments. Whilst internal politics always exist, the atmosphere was always positive and encouraging of new interns, and got behind the product..

The internship was well organised, but nothing overly spectacular. The start and end of the placement were clearly define and sandwiched by review sessions with supervisors, but the majority of the year was quite free flowing and largely developed as you worked and grew into the role. The application process was very streamlined though.

A clear red flag for the level of long-term investment is the lack of grad scheme or continuation after the internship. However, this ignores the resources, time and genuine care from the team that go into your placement year. The Lunch N Learns and intern training days were especially useful, and were run with a clear vision of helping your career beyond Warner.

The placement does not offer a direct grad scheme, which may turn some people off, and finding a job at WB after the placement comes down to being in the right place at the right time sadly.To land an actual spot at WB again, a relevant job opening has to occur, so when planning for your future, this can be somewhat unpredictable.

Short answer: London. Long answer; I actually lived outside of London with my current partner who worked in Cambridge. However, as expected, costs were still very high, especially if coming from a non-Southern university. Accommodation and travel swallowed a considerable amount of monthly and income as well as socialising, although if you are sensible and know the right places to go, London prices aren't as terrifying as some people like to make out!

Working in London can be very intimidating due to the sheer size of population and inaccessibility of certain activities like sport. WB definitely could have done encouraged outside interaction and alternative social opportunities outside of the interns a bit more, but then again, that is up to the individual! WB did however have many tasks which were outside of work, such as work-sponsored mud runs, charity days and softball events!