HR Intern Review

I enjoyed my placement at BMW (UK) Manufacturing Ltd more than I ever thought I would. I got involved in important tasks and had my own responsibilities and task to complete daily and weekly. The 13 months I have worked here have allowed me to grow both personally and professional and I have made great memories whilst doing so.

I never felt like just an intern whilst on my placement I was treated as a fully fledged member of the department and was treated the same as any other colleague. When coming into my placement this was something i was concerned about as manufacturing environments are known to be tough for young females to work in. However, working for a year has put all those concerns aside as everyone i have worked with has been great.

During my placement I had a mentor as well as my manager and both offered me endless support from the first day of my placement to the last.

When I first started in my placement I found that routine tasks took up a lot of my day and I would be busy from the start of the day to the end. I did have a period after around 4-5 months where I found that I could do tasks quicker and ended up having quite a bit of free time, but, once i raised this to my manager I was given more tasks and found that I would be busy again.

During my placement I was allowed to work as a HR Advisor for a period of time due to my knowledge and abilities and that there was a reorganisation happening within the team. This meant that I was given a lot of responsibilities including steering absence for a whole department, dealing with upgrades and downgrades as well as delaing with everyday queries and problems raised by employees.

I believe the skills i have developed over placement will help me to have a better understanding of aplplication when returning to uni. Mostly i feel though that the skills i have developed will help me in my future career endeavours.

As I worked in a small team our office would sometimes be quiet or in fact I would be alone in the office. However, there were always people in neighbouring offices who I could go and speak to or socialise with so this was not a great issue for me. Although it wouldve been nicer at times to have that atomsphere in my own office.

The onboarding process when I started was slightly disjointed but apart from that I have found that the placement was very well organised with regular tasks and opportunities offered to me. I also had regularily organised meetings with members of the team to discuss my placement and my prospects for the future.

Whilst on placement I did recieve training which really helped me within my role. I got to do this with the whole team, hoever, I was not given any personal training which was paid for. Howver, the amount of time my colleagues put into training me definitely made me feel as though I had been invested in.

For me the prospects of working here in the future are very appealing. I feel as though they would continue to invest more in me and focus on my personal growth as much as my professional. The prospects are so appealing that I am in fact looking at pursuing a graduate scheme within the HR Department.

As there are a lot of interns on the plant there is a very good intern social life and communication. This included having weekly meet ups as well as larger events less frequently such as paintballing and go karting. There are also regular socials with colleagues including a monthly lunch, dinners and evening events.

The living costs within Oxford are very high as to be expected and the cost of socialising is also high. Although if you know some student places to go and get a house share it is manageable to balance socialising and rent within the bounds of the salary you recieve.

The nightlife in the area was realy good and because there was always a lot of interns interested in going out it meant that wherever you went would always be guarenteed a good night. You have the option between clubs, pubs or bar so should always be somewhere for everyone.