Sales Operations Analst Review

I have loved my internship at Intel and have gained invaluable experience. I was a sales operations analyst at Intel, working within the sales and marketing team. We were given a huge amount of responsibility with interesting jobs. The company also allowed me to explore my own interests, as I went onto shadow PR, finance and sales. You can make the placement year your own and get as much out of it as you want.

I always felt extremely valued by my colleagues. As an intern, you are given a proper job with great responsibility and without you, they would need to hire a full time employee. I have been regularly recognized for my work throughout the year and praised by my team. You really are an important part of your team and I always felt very valued. I never felt treated as an intern, always as a full time employee as if I had been there for years.

I was given a great amount of support and guidance by my manager throughout the year. We had weekly one to one meetings where my manager could help me with my work and answer my questions. My manager also supported me with the University work I also had to complete throughout the year and my manager met with my placement tutor to discuss my progress. So my manager took a great interest in what i was doing and my progress.

Generally, I was busy most of the day with my daily job - whereby a managed 3 major projects within Intel. Of course, I had busier and quieter periods, so during the quieter periods i would ask for more work, which my manager would happily give me. I was also allowed to go and shadow other departments and work on projects with them when I was quiet. Throughout the winter we were planning a networking event, so I was very busy during this period.

I was given a huge amount of responsibility during my placement. I managed 3 major marketing programs within Intel - part of my job was to upgrade partners to our top tier, which gave a huge amount of responsibility to me. As interns, we were also involved in the organisation of a large networking event in Milan, which we were going to attend but it was cancelled because of covid. So yes, I was given a lot of responsbility.

The training and skills that I have acquired during my placement will be of great use for my final year of University and for my future career. I have seen how a large, multinational corporation operates worldwide. I have been trained how to behave in an office environment and how to work well together in a team. I have also carried out numerous marketing and finance training within Intel which will in no doubt help me with my final year.

We had a great atmosphere in the office. All of our team sat next to each other - all the interns and the managers. We chatted when we weren't too busy and every Wednesday for our staff meeting, employees would take it in turns to bring in cake. Everyone was upbeat and chatty when we could be. Everyone was always welcoming and I found that all employees at Intel were extremely kind and helpful. I had University work to do this year and lots of managers were very supportive of this.

The work placement was extremely well set up and organised. I had a 5 week handover period at the start of my placement, whereby I was trained by the other intern. This gave me plenty of time to learn my job. Also, I was required to attend lots of training sessions which taught us about Intel and how the company works - they really took the time to educate us. Throughout the year, we always had constant support.

Intel heavily invested in our personal training and development. Almost every month we were required to take online training about the company, it's values and rules. Also, during my quieter periods, I was allowed to go and shadow other teams and work on projects with them. I worked with one team where I was allowed to attend an event in Madrid which our team paid for. They trained us on all sorts of things and really invested in us.

They are very appealing. Intel has been a great company to work for and has amazing benefits. You are also able to rotate within the company, so you could start off in HR then move to finance if you wished to. I have been treated as a full time employee when there and also received all of the perks. It is definitely a company I would like to go back to. However, Intel does not have a graduate scheme so you need to work well to get hired back.

Yes there was a great social scene. Every Thursday, all of the interns had a social together. This was either going out in Swindon, going for food, to the cinema or just movie nights in. The staff at Intel were happy for us all to go out on a Thursday night in Swindon and still work on the Friday. We were really encouraged to socialise. Also, within my team, we also had team lunches and quizs.

I lived at home so this is not applicable to me but I know Swindon is a very cheap place to rent a house in. The cost of going for nights out and going for food was very cheap.

The nightlife was great fun - all of us interns would go out on a Thursday night as this was the best night in Swindon. There was lots open, including bars and clubs and the places were happy to let lots of interns in. There were also very good food places in Swindon where we went out for food before a night out. Also with my team we would go out for food and drinks after work.

Yes there were lots of opportunities to get involved in outside of work. We had intern committees, including sports and social, publishing, charity, inspire and eco-committee. We were actively encouraged by our managers to join these committees and I was head of publishing where I sent out an informal, fun biweekly newsletter to the pool of interns. There was also a volunteer committee, whereby we would organise to go to schools and care homes to help out there in the workday.