Product Development Intern Review

I have really enjoyed my placement at Disney, from the start I was welcomed into the office and treated as a colleague of equal footing rather than an intern. The work has been constantly changing and is exciting and creative. The office is a great place to be with a large variety of perks and ongoing social activities.

I never felt like I was just an intern at Disney, the work that I was doing was my own and not just passed downward. I felt I was trusted and valued as an employee, and was given a large amount of responsibility. I felt that I could help and assist with any issues around the office and vice versa.

My manager was extremely good at providing me with support and guidance, through regular catch ups an meetings we would discuss my future and long-term goals. We would then plot courses to meet these targets before my time at the company was up. We achieved reaching these goals through initiatives such as individual briefs, brainstorms and client presentations.

My day-to-day was constantly evolving, with no day being the same. I would perpetually have work to do, with on-going briefs to work on in the background and more immediate work to be done for clients. There was always design to approve to meet client deadlines as well as inspiration design that I would continue to produce throughout.

I felt that I was given a large amount of responsibility, in some cases it may have felt overwhelming but in hindsight I am glad that I had it. As a lot of the job is in contact with clients, there can be some negotiation which can seem daunting but there is always support from your colleagues.

I think my placement has taught me a lot from a business side of things; how it is run, how to speak to clients, how to deal with certain situations. From a design side, I think that it has taught me less technical skills, but greatly enhanced the skills that I already had.

The general atmosphere in the office is very good, everyone is in good spirit and there is a good tone to the office. There is a good air of creative development, where everyone will share the work that they have been working on and bounce ideas and concepts off one another.

At the beginning, I did not feel that the placement was well set up as I felt that after my week handover, I was a little out of my depth and kind of thrown in at the deep end. As I settled into my role I felt much more at ease though.

There is a very good social scene amongst fellow students and colleagues with work nights out constantly being organised for one reason or another. We also had a close group of interns that would organise our own events throughout the year. The majority of social occasions are self-organised but still manage to get everyone out of the office.

The cost of living and socialising is very high as you are based in Hammersmith, West London. I chose to live a little further away than the immediate area as I found that Hammersmith was extremely expensive for living but there are cheaper areas not too far away, eg. Shepherds Bush just down the road.

There isn't a great deal of good nightlife in Hammersmith and what is there is quite expensive. However, being in London, there are very good transport links to much better areas that are not that far away and so you can reach somewhere more exciting in 10mins on the tube.