Digital Marketing Intern Review

I landed an internship with Cisco Systems in San Jose, California last summer. It was very enjoyable as I was working within the department I'd wish to be placed in; Marketing. I fit in very well with the culture of the company as well as the culture of the country which made my experience even more fun.

I felt extremely valued by my colleagues. Initially, I did not think an intern would get so much recognition, however, my time there proved me wrong. I was treated like a full time employee and given high level tasks which were expected to completed in the same manner as any other employee.

The mentoring system at Cisco is absolutely great. During the first week, we had an orientation session where we were told about the basic do's and dont's. After we started our role, everyone was assigned a day to day manager as well as your hiring manager. My day to day manager was very helpful and was always happy to answer any questions that I had. This made me feel comfortale and allowed to me to ease into the company a lot faster than I expected.

I was quite busy as I was working on a rotational scheme and my tasks were divided amongst two teams, social media and user experience. I would work half the week with social media and the other half with user experience. However, I never felt overwhelmed with the work load, it was always just the right amount.

I was given alot of responsidbilites. For instance, under the social media team I was in charge of the digital training and certification program for employees at Cisco. I was expected to constantly monitor our Education Management System and devise a strategy to improve it's functionality.

I think the one skill that I really picked up on the job and that has helped me all round, is the ability to speak fearlessly in public. Due to the amount of presentations that I had to do and the board meetings I had to be present at, I feel like Ive gained enough confidence to speak to whoever, wheerever I am.

The corporate culture at Cisco is very relaxed. There was a game room in my office as well as a massive cafeteria where people would go to just to have a chat when they needed a break from work. The working hours are pretty flexible. I was allowed to work from home whenever I wanted to, as long as I executed and met the deadlines.

It was very well organised. The internship commenced in August. We were expected to complete our first set of projects before Jan, when we had our first mid-year showcase. In the second half of the internship, we had a rotation where we chose to either move to a different team or stay in our current teams. Finally, in June we had a end-year showcase where everyone presented their projects that were completed throughout the year. This was a great opportunity to see how everyone used their skills to add value to Cisco collectively.

Cisco Systems always tries its best to train its employees to the best of their potentail. Under the marketing department, the Digital Training and Certification program is built to educate employees around the 5 pillars of Digital Marketing in today's world. These courses are all taken online and strongly encouraged.

Very appealing. More than 50% of Cisco interns are offered Grad roles upon completion of intership. I liked this internship so much I've applied again, but for a different department. I would've applied for a Grad role in London, however they don't sponsor international students unfortunately.

Yes, the Cisco International Internship Program always made an effort to bring students together through cultural events e.g. they took us to the Levis Stadium in San Jose for our first outing as a team and we also got a change to go to Alcatraz together too!

Rent was paid for by the host organization so the only thing I had to pay for was food, holidays and transport. This would roughly come up to 1,000 USD a month. However, this figure is not a good representative of average expenditure as I don't drink.

San Jose is not so great in terms of the nightlife. For the weekends, the interns would usually head up to San Francisco. On some occasions, we would even drive up to LA for the weekend!

Yes, tonnes! Cisco has such a wide community of socieites. I was a part of the badminton society and members would meet up on the weekends to play a game or two.