EMEA Marketing Assistant Review

I have really enjoyed my time at Hays as an EMEA Marketing intern - I have learnt so much about both global marketing and, more generally, about working in a multinational corporation. There have been a wide variety of projects to get involved with and take ownership of, meaning that I have constantly been challenged and rarely been bored. It has been a pleasure to work with such great, friendly people and I am sure that I will keep in contact with many of my coworkers once my placement year is up.

I have felt very valued by my colleagues, not only from a professional standpoint but also in a more personal way. I have been able to build relationships with people in my office and also all across the world, and have always felt like a real member of the marketing team rather than 'just' an intern.

When I first started I was very impressed with the support I was given - I was a complete novice and my manager at the time did a great job of guiding and training me. Unfortunately there was a bit of a gap where my old manager left the business and wasn't replaced for a few weeks, meaning that I had no manager and instead was reporting directly to our marketing director (based in Spain). Being an intern with no line manager in the country was quite stressful - but looking back I think I learnt a lot in this time, so it worked out okay.

There were many peaks and troughs in terms of how busy it got; sometimes it was extremely hectic and at other points it was much calmer. On the whole there was a good balance but I would say that you have to be able to work well under pressure & balance your time well, as it does sometimes get extremely busy.

I was treated like any other member of the team and given many of my own projects to work on. Though my manager and our director were always there to support me, they always trusted me enough to work on projects individually and had a lot of confidence in me, to the point that some of my projects didn't even need approval from them.

Throughout my placement I have further developed the skills and gained the knowledge & experience that I will need to become a successful marketing professional. I have also expanded on my project/time management skills which will definitely help me in my final year at university, as well as in the working world.

I would say that it was definitely a more corporate atmosphere than in most marketing departments, but that's not to say we didn't have fun. The people are friendly and you can always find someone to have a quick chat with or eat lunch with. Everyone gets along incredibly well which is a great environment to work in!

As I was the first intern in this role, there were a few teething issues in terms of figuring out my exact responsibilities, but these were quickly resolved. To be honest it felt like less of an internship and more like a normal job, but this was a good thing for me!

I received brief training on a few bits but it would have been nice to have more technical training on some of the platforms we use (e.g. Salesforce). There were some things that I wasn't taught and had to just figure out myself, so that would be something that could be improved.

I would probably come back if I was offered a graduate job, but only if my role evolved somewhat as I wouldn't want to just do the same thing as I did this year. There have been a couple of discussions about future employment prospects but nothing formal as of yet.

There were two other marketing interns who I got along really well with, but unfortunately there was a bit of a divide between us marketing interns and the other placement students (who were largely recruitment consultant interns) - to the point that some of them didn't even know we had a marketing department in our company! This didn't really matter though as our other colleagues in the marketing department were fantastic and very easy to socialise with.

The cost of socialising was quite expensive - it's no secret that London is pricey! I was able to live at home during my placement year so I didn't have to pay rent, but I know that rent is expensive in this area too. The positive is that there are a lot of options for places to go!

There are lots of great bars and pubs in the area that we could go to depending on how big a night we wanted. Though they were quite expensive there was always a great atmosphere and everyone really enjoyed themselves! It was definitely a great way to get to know co-workers.

To be honest there weren't really that many activities available other than when we organised our own after-work drinks on a Thursday or Friday. I didn't really mind this though as it was still a great chance to be able to socialise. It would have been nice to have more things organised by the workplace though.