Marketing EID Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed this placement as a whole, it enabled me to utilise the skills I already had as well as allowing me to develop new, useful skills for my future career. The placement also allowed me the freedom to choose my own projects which allowed me to discover the types of things I enjoyed working on- fantastic experience overall!

I felt very valued by my colleagues here at GE, I was never treated like 'just an intern'. I was told from the beginning that we did not need to introduce ourselves as interns if we didn't want too, we were seen as and given the same amount of responsibility as permanent employees.

My manager was extremely supportive in my role. From the beginning she made sure I had sufficient training to ensure I could work independently in my role. She frequently asked if I needed any help, and we set up biweekly catch ups to go over my work so she could support me where needed.

As my role was more project based I did have busy periods of time where I would need to go above and beyond my daily roles, however this was not on a frequent basis, and it was never forced upon me to do extra work. Of course with that there were also quieter periods, however I would say that overall my workload was very balanced; if I needed more to do I knew that I could ask for it, and I had the support there if I felt I had too much work.

I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of responsibility myself and the other interns were given. From the beginning I was able to self-manage certain projects and take the lead in many necessary tasks. As I had been trained, a lot of people were able to come to me for reports, which I felt confident in delivering due to the vast responsibility I was able to have.

I would say the main skill that has assisted me in my studies is self-management. I worked within teams and independently on the daily basis which are vital skills needed at university; both skills were used heavily in my time at GE. My training here can also be carried forward into my future job roles, and talking points in any interviews.

The office that I work in had just been refurbished before I started here, and it had facilities such as a communal coffee area, a chilled out bean bag room, and a table tennis table in one of the meeting rooms. This did create a more relaxed atmosphere among employees. I would say, however that the office environment was fairly quiet a lot of the time and it generally had to stay that way due to employees being on calls.

The placement was very well set up, we had joint task boards so I knew week by week what my tasks and responsibilities were. We also had many meetings, so if I was unsure about any of my tasks I had opportunities to speak to my team to clarify any outstanding work.

We all had access to PD@GE which enabled me to put in my priorities for the week or month which enabled me to set focus points for myself, as well as look back and review what I have been prioritising. We also had tools such as General Assembly which contained tailored training courses that we could complete at our leisure.

There are not many graduates in my particular office but I believe there are opportunities to come back. The opportunities generally seem to be on a manager to manager basis, so it depends what impression you have made of yourself during the placement. They do not seem to take people on before the end of the internship as far as I know.

There were two 'lead interns' who organised outside social events among interns. Although they did organise a few events, I would say the majority of our social scene was done by friends in the placement which was not a bad thing. We had on average around 2 social events per month, as well as spending every lunch together as interns.

It was relatively expensive to live and work where we did. I lived in a shared house with other interns and we were paying around half of our income on rent per month, and then on top of that we had to pay for transport to work, in this case a car. If we had lived closer to work the cost of living would have likely increased.

The office was situated in a quiet town so there was not a lot of nightlife directly close to the office (there were pubs and cafe's). However, we were less than an hour away to London with a direct tube link so going into the City wasn't too difficult if we wanted to.

There were quizzes organised, charity football events, charity fundays and a few gym classes during lunch times. Maybe there were more that I wasn't aware of, but most of the extracurricular activities were carried out by ourselves, other than the quizzes which were good. Again, I believe there may have been more available.