Marketing Intern Review

The internship was always challenging and pushed me beyond my limits which made every achievement even more rewarding! The beginning of the internship, as I can imagine with most, was daunting, but my team and the culture at Mars really made even my first few nerve-racking days enjoyable! Once I was fully integrated into the culture after about two weeks, I really felt at home with the company and was surrounded by extremely supportive associates!

My projects were seen as incredibly important and valued by my colleagues! Every day at least one person on my team would ask for my advice or opinion making me feel really valued despite my lack of experience with the company and in the marketing industry! I presented my final project and recommendations to a panel of associates at the end of my internship and was truly overwhelmed by how much my team members valued my contribution - taking on board my advice!

My line manager was always ready for a catch up and ready to give me more direction! My friends on my team were more than happy to sit down with me and offer guidance on elements of my project that I was struggling with. Moreover, higher management and GMs were also keen to support in any way. Mars has a naturally supportive and open workforce.

This varied depending on the stage in my project and other projects that I took on over the summer however on average the workload was just right. Some days were busy with meetings whereas others were useful to sit down and collect thoughts and ideas - perfect balance. If I didn't have enough work on, there were always smaller projects to get involved with.

I was given IMMENSE responsibility which at first was very daunting! I was given the responsibility and autonomy of leading a website update with no previous experience of such a project - I had to liaise with creative teams and technical teams (in India!). This responsibility was huge but the successful result was a huge personal achievement for me. As an intern you are given a great amount of responsibility at Mars.

Even spending such a short time at Mars has affected my personal learning greatly. I developed skills such as communication, negotiation, briefing, team work and presentation skills. Mars were fantastic at guiding me through my personal learning journey, and allowed me to identify my strengths and weaknesses. I will take what I have learnt from my time at Mars with me for the rest of my life! The confidence that the company and the associates instilled in me is still with me today.

All associates are dedicated to their roles and spent a lot of time in meetings or on telephone conferences, however at lunchtimes and on quieter days, the office atmosphere was great. It was calm enough to work but everyone was friendly and chatty.

AMAZING! The internship was organised to a tee - my colleagues had taken so much time to decide the best project for me and how this could keep me busy for three months. Also, other teams in the office had taken time to think about how I could help them with smaller projects. The HR team were great and were always on hand if I had questions or ideas.

Mars as a company was keen to invest in me even as an intern. I took in an MBTI training session to understand the ways I work and my personality style. This was incredibly useful and I now understand why I can work better with some people and could get frustrated at others. Moreover, the time spent on the PDP that all interns and placement students work through was appreciated. This Personal Development Plan took advantage of the vast amount of resources that Mars has on talent development - they have their own Mars University!

Future prospects with Mars are very appealing - their MMDP Grad Scheme is incredibly reputable and offers the same challenges and responsibilities that I greatly appreciated during my internship. Mars associates are flexible and many have worked in incredibly diverse sectors while staying with the company. I have been asked to attend an Assessment Centre for the Grad scheme which is incredibly exciting given that I had only just finished my first year at University when I joined them for the summer!

The office that I was placed at was quite small and there werent many other placement students - at first there were just two of us, but we got on very well and had a great time with our colleagues as well! It would have been nicer to have had the chance to meet up with other placement students but the size of the office meant that there weren't many opportunities for placement students there.

I lived in Nottinghamshire - Nottingham has a very decent standard of living and is a vibrant city with a great nightlife, fantastic restaurants and a great city atmosphere.

The office was in a small village called Waltham so the nightlife around the office was bleak, however many placement students get accommodation in Nottingham around 40 minutes out from the office. This means the nightlife often experienced is that in Nottingham which is great - there are some lively gig venues as well as some jazzy cocktail bars.

Other than the football team, there wasn't much on offer if you weren't sporty unfortunately. I know that at the larger offices however, there are a lot of opportunities to do things with colleagues outside of work.