Marketing Intern Review

My internship as the Marketing Intern has been quite challenging, I think adapting to the mere culture of the workplace was the most difficult part for me. Although its not what I wanted in the beginning, its certainly what I needed. I feel that I have grown alot through this year at General Electric Oil & Gas. I feel that I now know how to work effectively and productively. Even just the self-discipline you gain from forcing yourself to be in a place from 9am until 5pm will help with the next stage in your life. I'm definitely ready to go and smash final year!

From time to time, when work was slow I was able to help members of my team with a couple of things they needed a hand with - because of this relationship, I felt reasonably valued by my colleagues. However, the majority of my time at General Electric Oil & Gas I completed work for my manager so my colleagues had little to do with my experience.

I feel that I was given quite a lot of support by my supervisor. Personally, I think that the internship is what you make it so if there is something else that I would rather be working on or another department that I wanted to get experience with, my supervisor would facilitate this.

Since the marketing department was no longer needed at my branch, work had become very slow towards the middle of my internship so I was usually left to my own devices maybe half of the time. If I hadn't asked around for extra work, there would have been many more days where I was entertaining myself at my desk. I mostly had longer term tasks to be getting on with when I did get work so I was able to go weeks at a time working independently - which was a pro for me.

I feel that I was not given much responsibility throughout my placement. At the beginning I was responsible for completing content forms for the website but as the department diminished, I don't feel there was an actual role for me or that I was utilized as well as I could have been. This was no fault of management - this was probably due to state of affairs at the plant that I was working at.

I developed my excel skills and gained skills in working with SAP. I think from a professional standpoint these skills will really help me. I think that by having done a placement in general puts me in a good position for when I leave University. I didn't receive official training whilst on placement, it was mostly on the job training and figuring things out myself. I've learned to trust my intuition more and follow a routine - these things will most definitely put me in a good standing for next year.

I think that morale was quite low when I started at the office, as the year progressed and as things settled and I settled I think it improved. All the interns were acquainted in the beginning so this allowed me to make some great friends and meet some awesome people so the atmosphere wasn't completely dull! There was still the usual office banter and jokes so I think it was the initial stage which took some getting used to. I think we all helped each other through it.

I think there was a big disconnect between Human Resources and the site I worked at because some of the interns were not really utilized as well as I could have been which suggests that I was not needed. I found that my supervisor tried to get me involved in some projects and the goings on in the office to keep me interested and make me feel in the loop. I think I would have benefited from an actual program in place.

I don't think the company particularly invested in me. All things considered: I was never really busy, there was no scheme in place or training and I wasn't needed for the role I was offered - I think its clear to say that there was no investment. What I can say is that my direct supervisor invested in me and tried his best to keep me learning new skills - when he had the time.

General Electric have various graduate Schemes and Leadership programs which I'm considering applying for when I leave University. Having been in a small town away from the City (and what I'm used to) I think this played a big part in my adjustment to working life. Alot of the schemes are in London and abroad so I think there are many exciting opportunities internally to embarked on. However, there is no chance of you being automatically put onto any program after the internship, you must apply.

Since I lived in Farnborough and had a car there were many times where the interns and I would grab lunch in town or any nearby towns like aldershot, fleet or guildford and go to the harvester, subway or costa or drive to a dessert place. We difinitely made the most of our time outside of the office!

The prices for food and entertainment in Farnborough were reasonable cheap. They have all of the main shops like Tesco, Sainsburys, Asda so the usual shops you would expect to see in any town. The prices in the canteen and cafe were subsidised so great value! Whenever I didn't prepare lunch I knew I could always get the soup of the day form the Cafe for £1 so no complaints here. I did also manage to save so I would say the cost of living and is cheap.

In the area the nightlife was poor. There are a couple of bars and cafes in town but that's pretty much it. Nonetheless, being close to the University town of Guildford, I had easy access to good nightlife: pubs, bars, clubs, restaurants etc. Fleet and Aldershot also have shopping malls with lots of options which are just 5 minutes away (by car) so there were various options in surrounding towns.

The guys sometimes played football, there was a running club at lunch time. The farnborough site has a gated wildlife park so I could take a walk and see some cattle, horses, rabbits and all sorts of animals. The site is very beautiful. However, there was no funding for Christmas or Summer parties, I didn't meet up with my colleagues after work. I think after work hours I was not given any opportunities to get involved in.