Music Services & Finance Intern Review

My placement had a split job role where I worked in both production and finance. I found I enjoyed one element of the job more than the other as I felt more intellectually challenged in my finance role.

Spending my time between two offices I found I felt a lot more valued by my colleagues in one location than the other. I felt a lot more valued and enjoyed the atmosphere in this office.

Within my finance role I felt very supported throughout my placement, my colleagues were all very friendly and willing to help me on my tasks if needed, as well as being approachable when I had any concerns.

I found I was completing my work quickly and being left with not much to do which left me quite bored at times, however as I progressed through my placement I found this did improve after talking to my management team.

I felt I was given a good amount of responsibility within my placement, but when working in the production department I felt I wasn't always trusted with my responsibility when I felt I deserved more recognition for the work I was completing there. I believe this varied with my supervisors. Within the Finance department I felt as if I was given complete control of my workload but still had my supervisor to talk to if I needed to.

I believe my placement was a fantastic expereince. Although I did not enjoy my whole placement I felt I have a much clearer idea of what I would like to persue on completing my degree and as I got the opportunity to work in two offices I was able to contrast the atmospheres and realise how where you work can have a huge effect on how much you enjoy your job, regardless of the job role. Even though some aspects of the job role won't be relevant to my future career it has still helped me develop many transferable skills and hugely increased my confidence. I believe having the work experience will be invaluable to me when searching for a job as a graduate.

Working in a sports environment I found the atmosphere was very relaxed and laid back, but people still worked hard. At times the atmosphere can be more tense when deadlines are approaching, but overall it's a friendly place to work. It's especially enjoyable when big sporting events are on the televisions and people get into it!

When I began my job, as my role was new to the company, I felt my time was a bit disorganised and my work and training was a bit all over the place to start off with. As I settled into the company the finance team worked hard to give me routine work and a timetable to be in the department which made a huge difference. Towards the end of my placement I felt as if the job role was more defined.

I was able to attend training sessions for using the company systems along with my other colleagues and the finance department spent time teaching me the processes I would be carrying out.

As ESPN is part of Disney it is a large company with an exciting atmosphere. Due to the sheer amount of jobs avaliable within the different parts of the company I believe there is a large scope for me if I chose to join the graduate scheme and I will definitley be considering applying to other parts of the business when I graduate.

As I had a long commute to my placement I didn't attend many work events, but when I did go along (usually for pub drinks!) I did have a great time. I was aware of plenty of organised intern events but didn't attend any due to my travel circumstances so I wouldn't be able to rate those.

As a student I'm used to cheap drinks at bars, so my opinion might be a little biased! Drinks in the area I worked were about £4 for a vodka mixer and similar for beers. As pub drinks were a popular social outing at work it could be quite costly if you were out for a long time. Going out for lunches weren't expensive with most meals being under £10. Being central London it's expected to be more expensive in general.

I didn't have much experience of the nightlife in the area, but being close to central London there are plently of pubs, clubs and bars in close reach. Thursdays were usually the night out for most employee functions.

There were plently of volunteering schemes run by the Disney company that you can get involved in and I was aware of a couple of sports teams like football and netball. However, I wasn't aware of these initially so I don't think they were advertised very well.