Marketing and Communications Executive Review

I got to enjoy many experiences. I went to a handful of events, I took a lead role within the committee and I worked with people who were keen to see myself exceed and flourish. I have made connections and memories that have helped me grow as a businessman. Overall I have enjoyed it.

In many extents my colleagues relied on me to keep the whole department running. I did a lot of work on Excel and reporting which very few in my team had the skills to do themselves. This did mean that without me in the office, a lot of work went on stand still until I returned.

Every intern begins their internship with HPE with a month handover with the previous interns. A month is more than sufficient time to ensure everything is passed over. I also had bi-weekly meetings with one of my team who would support me if I had any queries regarding work or personal life.

There was a big divide between interns who were busy and interns who had very little work. My role was one of the very very busiest. I would work weekends and evenings to catch up on the allocated work. My time management skills were improved dramatically, improved out of necessity. Many would easily crumble from this pressure, the current intern learning from me has broken down twice. And this is a quiet month.

As I have mentioned previously, the managers relied on my work to forecast and to get a view of how successful their campaigns had been. I didn't work in events, but interns who did were occasionally given the responsibility of running their own event. This has meant that I have learnt so much because of this.

In many ways my course could not have prepared me for the work I had been doing. The most relevant modules included digital marketing which came in handy when I was in charge of the social media pages...however this has proven that a year in industry teaches you more then 3 years at university.

At the beginning of the year the atmosphere was great and not what I expected of an office in such a large company. However, with the recent split and the amount of workers losing their jobs due to cuts really changed the mood and now the office is quite a depressing place to be.

Every year the interns go through a very similar onboarding and it has always worked well, so there has been no need to update it. (This is not a bad thing). However some of do find some issues from HR who are slow to resolve issues. I have experienced some issues myself.

Saying they invested time AND money into us would be a lie. They did invest a lot of time into developing us to business savvy...however we were by far the lowest paid interns in our area which is rather a kick in the teeth considering the value we bring to the company.

It is hard to say what the future of HPE will be. Initially I was really optimistic about the split, but the way things are going and the rate that people are leaving who knows what will happen to the company. The only graduate scheme we offer is within sales and I do not want to pursue that.

There was a very good social scene among the interns. Because there were over 50 of us we were not restricted by choice. We were also encouraged to mingle at attend events together. Money was given to us to organise events which encouraged this. However there was a lot of rivalry among interns, this resulted in back stabbing.

Most interns lived in Reading and had a 30 minute journey to work. I am a little biased because I do not like the city. The accommodation is very expensive. Most are paying £450 a month which is almost half our pay. And even though it is so expensive, the accommodation is dirty and not worth the money. Reading is a want-to-be London, the prices and the pretentiousness...but terrible in comparison.

Much to my previous point, there is nightlife. But it is expensive, clubs and bouncers had a power trip and the night food is terrible and dirty. There is also a homeless problem from all the drugs and not enough is done to remove them. You can go to London by train but that is expensive and not worth it.

You are encouraged a lot to get involved and their are lots of opportunities. Although you can easily get away with not doing anything.