Finance Intern Review

there were a lot of enjoyable and memorable aspects and activities to my placement. I enjoyed experiencing first hand a true office enviroment, and corporate structure. The brand culture was evolving at the time and that was an exciting thing to witness and be a part of. I enjoyed volunteering in the many events/shows that BMW participated in, such as the PGA Wentworth golf and NEC motorbike show.

Once settled into the department, and tasks and responsibilities had been assigned to me, I felt comfortable answering queries that other people had.

Managers were absent a lot of the time, which made 1-1 face time hard to arrange. But when I did manage to hold audience with my manager, he was very helpful, both critical and complementative

The peak times when I was busiest most, where the week leading up to and including month ends and forecast. the other two weeks of the month were filled with a variety of daily duties and other projects that were ongoing.

I was given a few tasks to call my own, utilising guidance only when needed.

I felt I grew personally and professionally during my time, and the key skills in the way of; time management, completing a 9-5 routine (i.e feeling comfortable with a structures 8 hours work every day), and the microsoft excel skills, will prove to be invaluable in the future

The overall atmosphere was more like a classroom. Everyone can get on with anyone if they need to, say to work on a project together. Much like a classroom, when the working day begins, some people are right down to their tasks and getting the most out of their time, others however are very slow starters, plodding along till the early morning coffee break. When work was in full flow however, the atmosphere was busy to say the least, especially at month ends and forecast periods.

on an overall level for all students the structure worked well, with enough prep time from previous students to school the new crop in tasks that will eventually be theirs. Personally though, there was little in the way of structure, since I was to be the first student in Finance. Arriving at a busy period too didn't help my early learning.

I like the corporate structure. The ability to move upwards and around other departments is so free, making the future prospects exciting. I also have personal ambitions to work abroad at some point, and BMW have international opportunities that I would love to utilise.

Being close to London the cost of living was obviously going to be higher than other places of the country.

being close to a university and living so close to the centre of Reading, night-life wasn't to hard to find/ get to.

As stated before, working for the events was one of the best projects of the placement. Other than the shows, there wasn't much in the way of activities associated with work apart from the Tuesday night football.