European Market Analyst Review

I really enjoyed my time working at Sony Europe. My role gave me exposure to lots of different departments/working styles. I enjoyed the structured aspect of my role and was brought in on a number of projects throughout the year as well as opportunities to travel abroad which was great experience!

The team was very welcoming. I felt like a full time member of the team not just an intern. I was given lots of responsibility from the first day, keeping me very busy. I could see directly that people relied heavily on the reports that I supplied, both in weybridge and across Europe.

My manager/team have been very patient and understanding. They were always willing to answer questions/show my things when I required futher clarification. However, at some points throughout the year I felt like my supervisor was too busy. I was aware that other interns had alot more regular 1:1 meetings with their supervisor.

I found that the workload varied thoughout the year, It was very dependant on the time of the month. There were times when I would need to work extra hours to meet business deadlines. There were paticularly busy periods, such as during the budget process, where my workload would increase. There was also quite periods, but this was also a good time to reorganise and focus on tasks that I may have neglected during the busy periods.

As previously mentioned I was given alot of responsibility from the start. The two weeks were training where I shared the tasks with the previous intern. However, after the two weeks I had ownership of many of the reports. As the placement progresses I was given more tasks and felt my role was expanded.

I beleive that the skills I have learnt during my time at Sony are invaluable and are directly transferable to my degree/career/general life. I grown in confidence both professionally and personally. I have undertaken an excel course with will benefit my CV. I was also brought in to support the recruitment of the new intern which was great experience. Its good to know first hand what recruiters are looking for in your CV/in interviews.

The atmosphere between the two different floors are very different. Upstairs tends to be a bit quiter. This is most likely because the employees in Europe travel more requently than those in UK (on average). However, its not that quitet that no one talks. Fridays tend to be a lot more relaxed.

The overall placement was well organised. The recruitment progress was quick and we had regular SPY developement days set up by HR. However, my experience with HAYS was not so great. HAYS deal with pay/holidays. They seems unorganised from the start and I had many issues with my pay when I first started.

During my time at SONY I recieved excel training, both on the job and through a course. When I was quite I was also able to assist other iterns such as product planning and carry out store visits which gave me a greater understanding of the business and gave variety to the role.

The graduate scheme has recently started up again which is very appealing. However, this only takes on 3 graduates so it is very competitive. It is also known that SONY takes on interns in juniour positions if available. One member of my department actually started off as an intern 2 years prior.

The interns are based in either Basingstoke or Weybridge. We only meet up as a big group on SPY Developement days. The interns in the weybridge office tried to meet up outside of work as often as possible. However, organising this was hard due to all of us living in varied locations.

The office is based in Weybridge, Surrey and so the cost of living is very high. Very similar to london prices. So I decided to stay living at home and commute.

There is very little to no nightlife in Weybridge. There are however a few pubs located around the office which have nice pub gardens. If we wanted to go out clubbing we went to areas suck as Woking/ Guilford/ Kingston which have a pretty good nightlife scene. Only downside could be getting home on the train.

There is a gym and fitness classes based in the office which many employees used. There are also fun days where there are cake sales/staff raffles in order to raise money for charity. There are other opportunities however it seems like it is down to you to look for them.