Application Support Review

Throughout the past year working at HPE, I have greatly enjoyed my time here. I feel that I have learned a lot and developed greatly as a person. The atmosphere around the workplace has been friendly and very accommodating.

The members of my team and my Org Manager have all valued my work and my contribution. I have been praised for working well and have been given responsibility to carry out tasks by myself. This has been relayed in my reviews and I have always been recognized for good work.

I have been guided and help by team members who have helped me learn the role and the day to day tasks. When asked for, help has been given and when there have been times in which I have been uncertain on what I was supposed to do, or the correct process of working, this has been reiterated by my team members

This is a hard question to answer as this is dependent on a day to day basis. For the majority of my placement, I have been busy every day to a point where it has not been overwhelming. Although there have been times which there has been a large amount of work and times which there has been very little work to do within the team. During these times though, I used this to help innovate my role and automate where possible and I was also encouraged to help with volunteering events and with other social events surrounding HPE. There is a large amount of work which can be done inside and outside the day to day role to ensure that you are kept busy.

I was given a large amount of responsibility within my role here, although this was not forced on me. It was expected that I take on certain activities as my own, although where possible, I requested more responsibility and this was given to me which made me feel a respected member of the team, rather than just an 'intern'.

I do not believe that the placement which I had helped me with my degree to a large extent, although I do believe that I have improved personally since being here at HPE. My confidence, work ethic and quality of work have all increased during my time here.

This is what you make of it. I found the atmosphere to be very friendly and most people were really helpful. This was helped by my job role in which it helped to talk to multiple people and by doing this, I built up a good relationship with many people. My team were easy to get along with like most teams at HPE. Everyone was happy to joke about which a very much laid back feeling, although this did not get in the way of work and everyone was professional where needed.

There was definitely room for improvement around the organisation of the work placement. No one knew which team they were a part of when they first joined and there were many things which were promised although they were not acted upon. We was promised rotation, opportunities to shadow other members where as most interns were in the same role for their whole placement. The organisation surrounding reviews and and performance tracking were often late and you was expected to do everything regarding setting up reviews with managers. We was also given little notice regarding our 12 month review task which was poorly timed as most interns also had work and reports for university to complete during this time. I believe this could have been planned better and the intern community given more guidance.

There was little training among the interns at HPE. Every intern was given an ITIL Foundation examination which is a useful qualification, although this was completed before we even started within our roles, meaning that a lot of the questions and a large amount of the information we learnt on the course did not mean anything to us or we didn't really understand it as we had not worked within the company by that point. I believe this should have been scheduled for a later date so that interns could apply their knowledge of their daily role to the ITIL framework. As for any further qualification, there was little to no opportunity as it is not financially viable for the company to allow an intern to complete any further qualifications whilst only spending 13 months at the company. I understand why this is the case, but I can not help be disappointed.

There is currently uncertainty as to what opportunities there will be in a years time. None of the interns at the Newcastle site have been offered any future employment, although this is not to say that there isn't any.

Most interns at HPE got along well. This all depends on what person you are. All of the interns you join are in the same boat so if you're an outgoing individual who is open to meeting new people, you'll enjoy the intern community. Although, there was little help from the company to help organise any intern events (No company funded nights or meals). We had a meal when we first joined and since then, it was very much something which you would have to organise yourself.

Newcastle is renowned for a cheap living costs. If you look in the correct places, accommodation can be £280p/m. There are plenty of bars and restaurants within Newcastle which are cheap and places to also go if you'd like to spend more. With the wage you will receive by working at HPE, you'll have no issues with living costs.

Again - Newcastle is renowned for its night life. A fantastic array of bars, pubs and clubs catering to whatever music or event you are into.

There are a lot of opportiunities to help out outside of your day to day role. There are countless volunteering opportunities and other events which the company is always looking for eager individuals to help out with.