Brand Activation Assistant Review

I really enjoyed my placement at Sony. The atmosphere in Sony UK was a lot more relaxed that I ever expected. I was in a very friendly team and was allowed to work with Trade Marketing, Digital Marketing and Brand Activation to get a wide range of experience.

I did not feel like an intern - I would always offer my help to my team members and get given tasks in response. I worked very closely with HR on big projects so didn't feel like I was always being given the boring tasks and as I progressed through my placement I had increased responsibility. I always felt like I could ask for help if I needed anything.

Both my supervisors were very supportive. We had weekly 1:1s to make sure tasks were set for the week and to clear up any questions or problems. I always felt like I could ask questions at any point during the week and my supervisor would make time for me no matter how busy they were. I never felt nervous asking a question because they were more positive in their feedback than critical. Even when I made mistakes they were understanding and said that everyone can make mistakes in data once in a while and helped me put it right.

The amount of workload varied a lot. Sometimes I had a lot to do and had to do overtime. At other times there wasn't much going on. It was very dependent on the time of the month and what events needed to be planned. When it was quiet I could ask for more work and got given tasks quite quickly. Then I would suddenly have lots to do. It is quite hard to balance but I think that was more due to my organisation.

I was given a lot of responsibility. Within my 3rd week I was in charge of running an induction on my own. I continued to do these every month. As my placement progressed I became less dependent on asking for data to be checked and had full responsibility for calculating and communicating incentive results each week. By the end of my placement I was responsible for updating one of the teams most used files each week with sales data.

I think my placement has definitely given me a taste of what working in a large company is like. It has definitely made me more confident in excel which will be useful in my degree. I have gained managerial skills but have not gained much marketing experience that I will be able to apply in my degree. If I re-did the placement I would like to have had more experience with trade marketing as it is more creative and would be applicable to the marketing side of my degree.

The atmosphere is very lively in Sony UK. The office isn't quiet and you are allowed to talk about things other than work. I feel like i'm friends with everyone on my team not just colleagues. The charity team also try to put on events to make it more lively like charity raffles or pub quiz nights. They are also showing the world cup on a big screen.

Once I was here it was well organised. We had SPY days to try and develop ourselves and get to know more about Sony and the other interns. I think more training courses would have been helpful. eg excel courses / managerial courses. I didn't have the best experience with Hays when I joined. I didn't have full faith that I would be coming to Sony after being offered the job because Hays took so long.

My team invested a lot of time into me to train me up on excel and make sure I understood the company processes. I didn't go on any courses though so don't have any more qualifications. They trusted me with responsibility to help me develop.

There is a graduate scheme that you can apply for. This takes on 3 students. Last year one of these students was previously a placement student. There are also junior role openings which you could apply for. A few of the workers here started off as interns years ago.

Yes. My team were always organising parties. We went bowling and played junk yard golf and had many team meals. We were lucky because we had such a big internal team so would organise events for them and go to the Sony UK parties as well.

The cost of living is quite expensive in Surrey because you are so close to London.

There isn't really a nightlife in Weybridge; there are just a few pubs. If you want to go out clubbing you would go out in Woking, Guildford or Kingston - these places have the normal nightlife scene eg, casino, prysm, hippodrone, popworld and spoons etc. You may even commute from these places anyway. Weybridge is about 35 mins from London by train but the trains home stop at about midnight.

I think it is down to you to look for activities if you want to get involved in them. If you look you will find them. There are various football, netball and rowing clubs you can join in the area.