Marketing Intern Review

My placement was fairly challenging in the sense that I consistently felt confused on my place in the business. As I did not have a core team around me, I felt like I did not have anyone to mentor my development or daily workload. As a result, I felt like I did not complete many of the responsibilities listed in my job description and I was instead offered work to keep me busy. Ultimately, this was disappointing on a number of levels.

Although I received little support from the team around my core role, the employees I encountered throughout the business were often very supportive. When I approached colleagues, they were very keen to interact with myself and check my progress and were often willing to respect me as any other employee. However, the little interactions and support I received from colleagues within my team overshadows this.

Unfortunately I had very little time with my manager which meant that I often felt lost and confused as to what was expected of me. A lot of the time I had to really pursue time with my manager and when this happened, it frequently fell through. Ultimately, this management style was not best suited for myself as I imagine a slightly more hands-on approach would be more beneficial for a placement student.

Many of the tasks and projects I was involved in were sourced by myself meaning that my work load fluctuated massively. For a placement student not as self-motivated as myself, it would very much be possible to complete minimal work. This was disappointing as I would have appreciated more support and encouragement in pursuing more regular tasks.

As mentioned previously, I was able to pursue my own unique projects with contacts from across the business which meant that I was able to hold decent responsibility within the business. The work that was assigned to me as part of my core role was relatively basic and requires little skill or responsibility.

Through the training and work I pursued on my own, I'm confident that I have gained solid business skills and life experiences that will suit myself well as I look to future employment. As I was able to pursue real responsibility, I now have meaningful and relevant professional experiences to draw on for future applications.

The floor of my office was often very quiet due to the sales nature of the business. The highlight of the office atmosphere was often reliant on the early-in-career community within that floor as they were often typically in the office and open to conversations. Generally, full time employees that were in the office were positive and conversational.

It felt like little time was actually put into the logistics of my placement. This was particularly felt when it came to support from my manager and the responsibilities I was expected to complete. As an early-in-career community, interns were often put on the back foot when compared to apprentices and graduates and often promises fell through.

Personal training and development that specifically addressed entry-level placement students for the business was very limited, with little formal training actually in place. However, the workplace training and development offered to general employees within teams were often of decent quality and usually useful for students within the business. More role-specific training would have been incredibly useful.

There was a definite effort to try and retain intern students into graduate positions and this seemed to be a new thing for the business. However, the roles that were available were fairly limited to sales and technical roles and it seemed difficult to move to different areas of the business from intern to graduate.

Fellow placement students were very welcoming and we quickly formed a close community. This social scene included both within the workplace and outside.

Relatively expensive due to the city centre locations of the business offices.

Nightlife was pretty standard and reliant on the people you went out with.

There seemed to be a decent number of extra-curricular activities available within the organisation although these seemed to be limited to sports teams. More niche activities seemed to exclusively contain full-time employees and they were less willing to include new students. Instead, extra-curricular activities was largely left to the intern community.