Territory Channel Manager Intern Review

Very flexible work environment with amazing learn it all culture and peers. Amazing benefits and opportunities to make and impact and self develop. Some initial lack of direction in terms of job role functionality, but issue addressed with time.

Rather than a team, we are a little family. The environment is very supportive, especially of interns, and everyone seeks to make everyone else feel at ease, always ready to help each other and have some fun when possible.

For what concerns learning the job role itself, it was initially more complex than expected and I would have appreciated a more defined structure on onboarding. For what concerns ongoing support and guidance, my manager has been impeccable in terms of giving me tips and allowing me to take on new opportunities within my role.

Before COVID-19, I would have been involved in a full all-day working day as if I were a normal employee, with numerous calls, events and meetings to attend, but being balanced out by Fridays from home and very flexible office hours. During COVID-19, due to less opportunities coming along and a more relaxed working from home environment, I have found myself having more spare time during the day.

As far as my expectations went, I'd say a lot. I got the chance to present at official Microsoft events in front of 150+ people, as well as running my own activities in collaboration with partners. I became the key point of contact for partners in my area of focus, and did not tend to get addressed as early-in-career as much as I would have expected. These factors were definitely crucial to feel valued and responsible for something tangible.

A placement year changes your outlook and perspectives on life and University. I was able to acquire technical and industry knowledge that I would have not been able to otherwise, and create a network and community around my role and product focus. I know there's still much more work to do, but I'm looking forward to the future.

Very familiar, and much less corporate than what someone would expect externally. The office is very beautiful in its own right I must say. Also, everyone's extremely friendly and always up for a catch-up. Now that COVID-19 is ongoing, we still try to keep the spirits high with team pub quizzes and lunches.

I must say that the structure of my role came to exist as time went on. There was no clear path to follow to understand it, as often this was done by shadowing or asking questions to my mentor. With time, I as then able to better get a grasp of what was expected of me and started driving impact on my own, however initially I did find some hurdles.

Massively. I had all sorts of different training, from technical skills initiatives to increase product competency, to personal skills to better ourselves as employees and people. Building confidence, increasing resilience, being tolerant, building personal branding in a corporate environment, understanding our skillset and personality set, and so on, were just some of the many activities I was able to take part in.

Very appealing, however also extremely limited in terms of numbers. Very good career growth opportunity, but it appears to be complex to come back as a graduate due to the limited number of places available. I'm still in the re-application process, so we'll see how it goes, but it is very competitive indeed.

Despite personally not being extremely social, I have found myself in a very communal environment where everyone seeks to help each other, and is always around for a laugh. The early-in-career community is truly valued and we are more than just work colleagues, as most of us live together and tend to hang out all together.

I'd probably say reasonable. Reading, the city where the office and activities are based, is not extremely cheap, nor too expensive. Living costs are fine in a shared house. A good balance overall. Not much going on in Reading itself, but it is quite close to London so that's always a bonus.

As I said before, nightlife in Reading isn't great. It does have its occasional decent pubs and clubs, but if you want to have some good fun with friends, it is recommended to hop on a train for London, which is only 30 minutes away. Not amazing nor awful.

The list could never end here. From charity clubs, to sports clubs, to social clubs and much more. Everything was organised by employees for the community, and there was a great focus on giving back. In addition, Microsoft itself was always happy to match the goal reached and further support what was trying be achieved for the community.