Reporting and Controlling Administrator Review

I enjoyed working at Sony Professional Solutions very much. My team was very friendly and helpful throughout. There were lots of things to do outside of the working environment such as a Sports and Social Club and the Sony football teams. Work itself started off a bit more quiet but that suited me very well and eventually built up to a very good equilibrium.

I felt very valued by my colleagues and didn't ever feel that I was just doing "intern tasks". As well as this, when I asked for more responsibility, this was gifted to me. I was also treated very respectably by higher management within the Finance team. Some of my work was used in the management meetings, in which they would make decisions/discuss results based on what I had compiled.

I have been working under two different line managers while working at Sony and both have been incredibly helpful. There was never a time where I felt I couldn't go to them for support. I had regular 1:1's with my manager in case there was anything I wanted to bring up with them and whenever I did, it was always actioned.

To start with I wasn't that busy, mainly just learning and shadowing. Then there was a period where I had learnt everything, but still felt that I could take on more work. Once I brought this up in my 1:1 with my manager I was then given more work and became a lot busier, which I liked.

The amount of responsibility increased as I got further into my placement. I thought this was a good way of knowing how much responsibility I felt comfortable with as if I started off with a lot of responsibility, I may have felt too swamped and apprehensive about approaching my manager to ask if I could do less.

I studied a Financial based maths degree and what I have learnt in this year will definitely help with my corporate finance modules. I also learnt an incredible amount within Excel/SAP which will definitely help me feel comfortable in jobs after university as I hope to go into a finance based role.

Atmosphere was very relaxed and I felt I could approach anyone that I needed to work with.

I feel that the placement was very well organised when it comes to creating events for all of the interns to attend so that you can socialise and interact with other students in the same position as you. As well as this it was easy to apply and quite a straight forward hiring process. However, when starting HR didn't put us in touch with the other interns until very late which made sharing a house with them impossible and had to find housing by myself.

There was a very good social scene here with all of the other placement students. There were 15 interns at the Basingstoke site, all of which get along very well and another 15 at the Weybridge site. This was definitely one of the best things about placement this year. I was also very lucky with the team I was placed in. We socialise a lot out of work and all get along really well.

Nightlife was one of the aspects that made the placement not as appealing. There is one main club in town and quite a few bars, but there isn't really a nightlife scene. Reading is an alternative, but quite expensive to go out/get back from. If you are choosing a placement based on the surrounding nightlife, I would not chose this one.

There is a Sports and Social club within Sony and this was great fun to be a part of. They hosted anything from quiz nights, to film nights in the on-sight cinema to days out at the races! As well as that there is a Sony football team that was really fun to be a part of.