Public Sector Marketing Review

I really enjoyed the variation of projects that I could get involved in across different departments across the business. I had a marketing role within Public Sector which exposed me to the five very different areas within public sector (education, health, government and public safety and national security). I also really enjoyed the freedom we had to explore different area of the business. As an intern, your core role is 80%, and you are encouraged to spend 20% of your time on other projects. Some of this consists of intern run teams, all of which give you huge responsibility and can have a huge impact on the businesses. You can also use this time to explore other areas of the business. The ability to explore the rest of the business and get involved in projects outside my role is what I enjoyed most about my internship.

As an intern at Microsoft, you're given a real role and real responsibilities, therefore you are accountable for the work that you do. Due to this, I did feel valued by my colleagues as for the majority of projects I did, I felt that (and had evidence to show) that I was making a positive contribution to the business. I get on well with my team, we always have lunch together and occasionally do social activities outside of work.

I wasn't given as much guidance as I would have liked, however this gave me the freedom to explore other areas of the business and figure out the areas that I am really interested in and want to pursue.

Everyday was different, no two days were the same and there wasn't anytime where I didn't have anything to do. There are some periods of time (leading up to massive events) that are incredibly busy and you have to put in extra hours, however on a day to day basis, as an intern at Microsoft, you can do all you work in normal working hours.

I owned several of my own projects and was given total accountability for a lot of the work that I did.

All the skills I have developed will definitely help me going back to university, though especially in my future career. I have learnt skills in working with people, managing people, dealing with conflict and time management and prioritisation but to name a few.

The office environment is very relaxed and open. You don't need to be chained to your desk, Microsoft advocate flexible mobile working. Meetings can be informal - most of the time, its just a catch up over coffee!

The on-boarding process is managed by the leaving interns which is good as they can directly relate to our experiences. In terms of my core role, I did not have a structured set plan for the year.

We had 2 training events throughout they year with all the other interns. In terms of personal development, there was little guidance around this.

Microsoft have a good MACH scheme which focuses heavily on developed skills sets of future leaders/managers. However the scheme is very competitive and there are very few graduate places compared to the amount of interns they take on.

There is a strong intern community, however as I lived at home during the year I was less apart of the intern social scene,

Cost of living is cheaper than London but fairly expensive as we're in a prime location in the south east.

Nightlife is ok, however seeing as I have lived in Reading all my life, it was nothing new to me.

N/A