Communications Review

I really enjoyed my time at HPE. Working within a great team and being set some really meaningful and business impacting projects. The large intern community at HPE definitely enhanced the experience. Outside of my day to day job there were plenty of opportunities to reach out to other departments to explore areas of interest. Co-workers and senior managers were more than happy to sit down and discuss my future career aspirations.

From all departments of the business I interacted with I truly felt valued. Not only was I thanked for my support regularly but given positive feedback for areas of improvement. My Placement Supervisor (Manager) was especially good at making my impact on the team feel valued. Any feedback received from the leadership team would be fed back to myself and shown the greater impact the work I completed had.

My supervisor and manager give a lot of support over the year. Stressing the importance of having a mentor and taking time to go over my professional development. Especially towards the end of my placement my manager was particularly good at helping me to explore potential future job roles and opportunities.

My workload in my role was definitely achievable, however, due to reaching out to other teams and getting involved in stretch assignments I became very busy. The day to day workload was just right for me. Also as the year goes on I have become better at prioritisation and time management which has helped.

I was given a lot of responsibility over the year with a lot of exposure to the leadership team. I was given projects to lead however support was always there if needed. As well as the project responsibility there was plenty of other day to day responsibilities to act upon.

Placement helped me to rethink and evaluate how the degree I study would progress to a future career. It has helped me to plan the next stages moving past degree and into the working environment. The internal training platform also gave me freedom to develop in the areas I would like to.

Good general office atmosphere with regular charity events. Some days extremely busy and some very quiet. Everyone generally friendly and most people will say hello.

The overall organisation was ok, with a lot of room for improvement. A lot of communication from the placement organisers at the start with limited communication at the end. Would be better if there were a few more updates. However I am aware that the placement organisation will be significantly better for the next cohort of interns.

The company invested a significant amount of time with intern. However, this is mainly driven by individual managers. The level of training and development is dependent on how good your manager is. I personally received regular one to one development sessions, and where relevant put into contact with people how could give me insight into specific areas of the business.

Depending on career aspiration it was made relatively clear the graduate opportunities with the company. However, for the project management and project focussed roles I am interested in there was nothing along these lines. Hopefully they will offer something to cater for this type of role in the future.

A lot of intern meant there was a big focus on the intern community. This included regular intern nights our as well as opportunities to raise money for charities. Within the work team, there were work socials. However, these were not regular. For me the social experience was very good!

Commuting to work was costly. If I lived in Bracknell or Reading I would have been able to save some money. Socialising in the area was not too expensive but not too cheap. I would say average level. Through intern socials there was often a deal included and could help spread the cost of travels.

Pretty average, nothing amazing. Would usually be the same two clubs in Reading. The area was also pretty safe, so there was usually no worries when going out. When working in London we would often arrange to go out and made the going out experience of the internship much more exciting.

With the charity side of work this was the main port of call for activities organised through work. I personally played rugby for a Sunday league team. So this was more than enough to keep me busy. I also played touch rugby after work in a business park touch league.