Studios Media Intern Review

My year working at The Walt Disney Company has been hugely exciting- I couldn't have imagined a more fun and interesting company to do my internship. I was lucky enough to be based in the Studios department and so I have experienced and learnt first hand how to create exciting and innovative marketing campaigns for films. I would say my biggest highlight of the year was getting to attend the premiere for Mary Poppins Returns.

Everyone at Disney is really friendly and you can tell that the team are all really close friends. Being an intern, one of the biggest benefits of working at Disney is that there are around 200 interns and so there are lots of opportunities to make friends. However, regardless of the company you work for, I feel that your relationships with your colleagues is what you make of it.

At the beginning of the year, I had weekly one on one meetings with my manager. However, as time went on these became less and less regular and it felt like she didn't have time for me. In terms of guidance, the atmosphere in the office is quite relaxed and it isn't as structured a course as other companies are. It is largely up to you to decide how much/what you get out of the year.

I never felt that stressed with my workload on a daily basis. However, due to the nature of the film industry, my workload would often go up and down, depending on if we were close to releasing a film. During less busy periods, my manager expected me to create my own work as opposed to relying on her briefing me to do something and so I would say you need to be quite independent.

I wasn't given huge amounts of responsibility. Tasks were delegated to me to manage however I would always run it past someone to check and make any final decisions. The only part where I had full responsibility is where I noticed information was missing and took it upon myself to complete.

I have learnt a lot about different types of media and marketing strategies which will be useful for my degree as I study marketing. I have also developed my problem solving skills and analyitcal skills as a large part of my role was around data and research and so these will be beneficial to me during assigments. Having experienced what it is like to have a full time job, I feel I will also be a lot better at managing my workload.

The atmosphere was mostly very relaxed. Every film release day we would always get given cake and birthdays are always celebrated with more food and cake! People are always chatting and you are allowed to wear your own clothes, it is quite informal.

I don't feel it was organised that well as there wasn't a set structure i.e. where you move around different departments. It is largely up to you to seek out what you want to learn.

The only thing that I experienced in terms of training was getting to visit their media agency for a training day. Other than that, there wasn't much in terms of actual structured training.

Disney to not offer a graduate scheme and it seems that you are only able to get a job there if someone leaves and a position opens up. Having said that, during my time here, I have seen previous interns come back to help out for a couple months on temporary contracts.

Yes! There are around 200 interns that work at Disney. In my department, we also arrange to all go out for drinks from time to time, often to celebrate the release of a film.

The offices are located in Hammersmith and so costs of living are rather expensive. However, I was lucky as I lived at home in Surrey and commuted into work each day so this wasn't an issue for me.

The nightlife consists of a few bars and pubs, it's not quite like the uni student life. However, after having worked full time, a big night out doesn't happen as often!

Being in the studios department, there were often exciting influencer events that I sometimes got to go to. There is also a cinema room at work which they would play a recent competitor film every Tuesday night after work.