Business Planning and Operations Intern Review

I have always been a massive Disney fan, therefore coming to work for TWDC as part of my placement programme was a dream come true for me. The environment here was always very friendly and supportive of its interns and everyone made us feel part of the team. These circumstances allowed me to excel and perform at the best of my abilities during this year.

Since there is no graduate scheme programme a lot of responsibility was being assigned to me. Once I have adapted to my role and responsibilities my colleagues would come directly to me to ask questions or assign tasks to me which made me feel a valuable member of the team.

My manager was always willing to asnwer all of my questions, especially in the early months of my internship. He would always advice me of what to do and direct me to the right direction of how to perform tasks. Furtermore, my supervisors would always make sure I understand the importance of my tasks and the reason why I am doing something.

Like with every job, there are busy period and quiet periods. During quiet periods I always had something to do since I had my daily stadard tasks and I was always assigned work from my managers when those were done. During the busy periods the workload was increasing massively but I enjoyed it being busy. I never had to stay late or come in during my days off.

As there is no graduate scheme programmes at TWDC a large amount of responsibility was assigned to me daily. My colleagues/managers/directors would come directly to me for questions and requests. Initially I needed to ask my manager's approval in order to answer those questions and requests but once I adapted to my roles and responsibilities I was trusted to perform tasks on my own.

The aim of my placement year was to experience the real industrial world and understand how a company operates in the market. I have learned and improved very valuable trasnferable skills such as commnunication, numerical and problem solving. Furthermore, this year allowed me to put into practise some of my theoritical knowledge that I have gained from university such as my accounting and financial knowledge.

The atmosphere in the office is very calm and friendly. The permanent employees here would always make us feel like part of the team which was very encouraging. Furthermore, there are a lot of interns within the company (200 of us) which helps making the work environment more friendly and enjoyable.

From the day I have arrived for my internship my work account and computer was already set up therefore I did not have to wait in order to be uploaded onto the system which was very usefull as I did not miss out time out of my handover. Furthermore, I had a week's worth of a handover with the previous intern which was very helpful.

The company has a private site called DLearn where it uploads helpful videos for computer programmes that we use everyday such as Excel, Power Point and other internal programmes in order to improve our efficiency when using them. I found this very helpful as I could access them whenever I wanted from my computer.

I would defenetly come back to TWDC for future employment however after a few years once I have experience other fields in the finance world. For long-term prospects though I would love to be part of the Disney family and work my way upwards here. The benefits of the jobs here sare very appealing.

There are 200 internts out of the Total of 2000 employees in the building, where we all communicated through a Facebook group page and a group chat. Furtremore, we would often organise after-work activites with the students from my team as we were all very close. Also, we would go out with my team sometimes for lunch.

Hammersmith is located in zone 2 of London, therefore it can be a bit expensive compared to other placement opportunities located outside of London. However, there are cheap and afforable options. Furthermore, there is a company discount card give to all the employees working in Hammermisth that offers discounts to many restuarants and shops.

The Walt Disney Company offices are located in Hammersmith in London which is a nice working area with lots of options of restuarants, bars and pubs to go after work. Furtermore, the Westfield mall is located only a 20 minute walk away from us which is very convenient if you want to go shopping but it also has a lot of nightlife activities.

The company operates the DisneyEars programme which is the volunteers of Disney. They would often organise activities outside of work where we could participate in. Furthermore, other activities include the Disney marathon which takes place during autumn where you can run a marathon at Disneyland Paris as part of a fundraiser.