Business Analyst & Marketing Intern Review

The internship was based in a great environment, offering challenging tasks and opportunities to learn in different departments.

Good team atmosphere, felt like an integral part of the team, contributing important work that helped the others to complete their jobs more effectively.

Support was available when needed, but in terms of guidance I would say there wasn't all that much after the previous intern left and training had finished. If I wanted any I had to specifically set up meetings.

This varied drastically, some days I was busy all day and time flew. Others I was sat at my desk asking for work as I was bored. This happened a little too often to be honest but things picked up over time. It might be a case of getting to know people so they know to give you work but it was very much a case of if you don't ask you don't get. Although not having to do much every now and then is nice, but over time it starts to affect motivation and drive for the placement and wanting to push to do more.

Among other things I was in charge of financial reports and forecasting that were used by sales teams and managers to secure contracts for customers in the UK and Ireland. If they were wrong then it would have impacted the revenue brought by sales, with potential contracts being missed or priced incorrectly, while incorrect projections would have resulted in an unexpected poor performance. Responsibility was high to produce reports that were correct and could be relied upon consistently so team members could use them to do their jobs and bring in the revenue.

I have managed to put elements of my theory based learning into practice and seen it work in the real world. I feel i have a better understanding of how businesses work and can incorporate this into my final year work at university. The experience will hopefully also be a stepping stone to my next job, as I have experience in an actual business and can bring those skills with me to that next position.

Although initially intimidating, the office was a friendly open place with the majority of people being chatty and having a bit of a laugh too. Everyone in my immediate team were really nice and supportive and if you were having any issues there was always someone willing to help. Although a little bland at times it was a very upbeat and enjoyable place to work.

There was an initial welcome day that was well planned out and got all the interns in one place to meet each other. Other than that it was down to the previous interns to train you in their job role and pass the torch as it were to you. The organisation of this, how well you were trained and what you had to do was essentially down to them. I was relatively lucky and that all critical parts of my role were covered, which at first seemed like a lot of work and a bit overwhelming. However over time as I came accustom to the workload and what I had to do I realised I had a lot of spare time and that I didn't really have that heavy of a work flow all the time. Since managers are in and out the office all the time, trying to get more work or be introduced to the right people to ask for some was tricky, especially as most of the time I felt like I was bothering managers when asking. However after being a bit more assertive and enthusiastic things picked up. As I mentioned before this was very much a case of if you don't ask you don't get.

If you asked the right people and seemed willing, then there were ample opportunities for training and developing skills in different areas of the business. Finding the right people was sometimes tricky but when you did you could often play the intern looking for experience card and people were happy to help you do so. I think if you really pushed and presented your case well there weren't many things that you couldn't get training for other than expensive courses professional training as you can't really justify that nor would you have the time.

GE has a few professional training programs that are rather appealing, particularly as my previous intern got onto one and popped in every now and then and gave me updates. Along with professional qualifications and working with highly ranked people, he got to travel to North America, Europe and potential parts of Asia for training. The salary seemed good from what he said and was enjoying his time immensely. It's something I would seriously consider applying for in the future if I could as it sets you up for a career with GE or elsewhere if you so wish due to the extensive nature of the training and professional qualifications earned.

There was a good mix of interns where I was based, although I didn't work with any directly in my team. At work there was a good social atmosphere and I got on well with all the other interns though it was tricky meeting up outside work. Due to the location of the company, it was quite out the way so people loved all over the place and I myself lived at home. This made things like going out for dinner or nights out tricky as people would have to get trains or drive for upwards of an hour to get home. The few people that lived close by always offered to accommodate people but it was never really practical.

Living was quite expensive from what I gathered, around 500-600 per month from what other interns said. Socialising was average, but depended where you went to be honest, but going for dinner or drinks on an official work do was paid for by the company.

London was a tube ride away and nearby towns had good clubs and bars so there wasn't a lack of options near work if you wanted to spend the money. Near the actual workplace was mainly pubs and restaurants which were nice but an actual night out would have been London.

Lots of opportunities to volunteer and get involved in various events held by GE were on offer. There was a social platform that people posted things on, asking for help and seeing if people wanted to get involved so if you went looking or wanted to there were opportunities. I didn't get involved in too many things as I lived over an hour away with traffic so it was never really convenient.