Junior Business Intelligence Analyst Review

I didn't know what to expect and the field I was involved in (Business Intelligence) was a little different to what I was looking for. Nontheless, my managers did a fantastic job of keeping the work challenging for me. Great atmosphere in the Weybridge office and my colleages were all awesome. Workload could have been better managed though as for me, I had a few dips where I felt a bit bored.

Very much so, felt my work was really appreciated and I was treated very equally. No complaints here at all. Was reiterated to me on ocassion how much my work had been appreciated with certain things! I really started to feel like a very equal member of the team towards the end, and able to contribute positively to team meetings and discussions about projects, my views on things considered without prejudice.

Manager/supervisor always pretty busy, but really did make me feel like I could ask if I had any problems anyway. Initial induction wasn't fantastic and I was a bit overwhelmed at first, though (although I feel my feedback on this was listened to) I had regular-ish meetings with my manager to review at first and felt confident I was functioning as a useful member of the team by the end,

Sometimes really busy, sometimes really not. I feel this could be better to be honest. Much better towards the end, but I had a real dip in workload at one point during the middle, having an absoloute minimum to do, only working on support tickets of which there were very few. There were points when I was working on other projects during which my workload went up a lot.

Feel I was given enough responsibility to be getting on with, allowed to take my own direction with a number of projects and pieces of work. Was never given too much though to the point at which I had problems dealing with it. Being given responsibility really made me feel a bit more confident about my abilities and enabled me to be stretched a bit which was nice.

I study Computer Science, so my Business Intelligence position helped probably not so much in my degree. That said, I learnt a lot of business, communication, presentation (especially from delivering training sessions) and so on - these 'soft' skills that I am very confident will help me in the future, regardless of what role I go into.

Atmosphere was nice, but don't expect too much. It's still very much office-y. It's a bit drab inside, but very open plan, and it has plants, which are cool. Everyone was pretty friendly, and it's fairly relaxed in terms of dress code and stuff like that. Some people did seem to stay late quite a lot, but there was no pressure to do this within my team. Half of the office in Weybridge is kinda abandoned and it feels pretty empty in places though. Not really much in the way of perks and stuff like that - very basic.

I have to be pretty critical here. Organisation definitely needed some work from my perspective. It was a miracle that I got the job, since the position advertised for was ‘Developer – IT Department’ and the position I was interviewed for was Business Intelligence. I had never seen a job description prior to my interview, so on the day we were all pretty confused! I was given very short notice before starting (only a few weeks...) so I was in a real rush to try to find accomodation and ended up living somewhere more expensive than I'd have liked. We were required to attend 'development days' which seemed fairly well structured and, although not that helpful, were generally fun.

It was made clear to me that I had various training options available to me, mostly HR courses and the like. My team was always very busy, so it was very much learn as you go. I personally liked this, and I felt like my colleagues would always assist me provided I'd tried myself first! Like I previously said, the intern cohort was required to attend these 'development days' which certainly didn't have anything wrong with them but weren't always helpful (more fun than helpful I would say).

My manager had previously told me that they'd be happy to have me back if I applied through the graduate program. He also said that the graduate program was a new addition, which wasn't particuarly encouraging in this regard. From my perspective as a CompSci student many of the students on my course are given a job when they leave their placements. A lot of large companies seem to hire large quantities of interns then offer many of them permanent positions. This just doesn't seem to me to be how Sony operate their program. I didn't see lots of graduates wandering around who had come off of the internship program either, so I wouldn't expect much here.

My colleagues were generally older. Not a problem, but this isn't the same as I've heard from banks and the like, where generally younger teams will often go out for drinks. Went out for meals and stuff though. No complaints. Weybridge isn't exactly that exciting, and quite a small group of interns in my office meant that you had to get along with them well. I personally didn't spend a lot of time with this group as I just didn't get along that well with a few of them. Again, not an issue, although I do know that they didn't have a whole lot to do.

Weybridge is not a cheap place at all. I paid a lot of money for a flat in the town, far more than what I paid at University. Your only option for socialising is probably London, and it is not cheap. Pubs and restauraunts in Weybridge are also very pricy.

Nonexistant. London is the only option, and its sort of a bit too far away. Weybridge is pubs and restaurunts only, absoloutely nothing else to do. It's a fairly small Surrey town. There are a few nearby towns like Kingston upon Thames which aren't too bad in this respect, but again nothing too thrilling. If you want anything very exciting expect to have to travel to London and pay through the nose for a taxi back.

There is an 'after hours club' which does bits and pieces. The intern cohort ocassionally organised a few events. Not a whole lot, though.