Campaign and Creative Marketing Intern Review

I have thoroughly enjoyed my placement at The Walt Disney Company because it has helped me to extend my skill set and has taught me so much about the industry. I am given far more responsibility than I originally expected, which is really rewarding, and I am always working on new tasks so no day is the same.

During my time here I have felt extremely valued by my colleagues. I am trusted to sign off activities on my own and am listened to in meetings. I am often encouraged by my managers to express my thoughts and opinions during certain tasks, and I truly feel that everything I say is appreciated.

I am constantly given support and guidance by my managers. My desk is situated next to one of my managers and she is always willing to help if I have any questions or am unsure of anything. This is great for me because it means we are always working closely on tasks, but it also gives me more of an overview of what she also does within her role.

My workload varies depending on what projects we currently have. There are days when I am really busy and days when it is more quiet and I have less to do. On the days where I am less busy, I always have the essentaial house-keeping tasks that I can catch up with, or if I feel like I would like to do something different, my manager always has tasks to delegate to me.

During my placement I have been given lots of responsibility. I was invited to the voiceover of our TV advert, and my manager wanted to know which take I preferred of the VO and agreed with my thoughts. I normally always take it upon myself to check with my managers before signing off activities, in case I have missed anything. Nonetheless, on days when they are busy/not in, they trust me to make the right decisions.

I have improved a vast number of skills during my placement year. The training I received during my handover week was very helpful and I still receive on-the-job training for different tasks. My confidence and communication skills have definitely improved with practice. I have also improved my technological skills and teamwork skills. These skills will benefit me when I return to University.

The office normally has a lively atmosphere, especially on days when we have the Business Development Executives in. However, due to the fact many employees travel to Walt Disney World or Disneyland Paris frequently, there can be days when the office seems more quiet. Normally though, the office has a nice buzz.

The placement has been very well set up as the programme has been running for a few years. Each year, the previous employee gives a thorough handover. The managers are also very accommodating and knowledgable and have set up the activities for the year well. They have a good understanding of roughly how much work you should be completing each day.

We often have tasks delegated to us on one of our CMS platforms that we have to complete within a certain amount of time. My manager also went through my aims of what I want to get out the placement at the start of the year, so is aware of the areas I wanted to focus on.

The Walt Disney Company do not offer graduate roles for returning students after they graduate. This has definitely been a downside. The company do prioritise people who have had an internship here before when there are job vacancies, but due to the fact that people love the company so much, it seems there are never many vacancies.

There has been a very good social scene. There are 11 interns including me within my department and we are all really close and do lots of things together outside of work. There are 200 interns in total in the office, and we are not as close with the rest of them, but there are definitely ways you could be if you wanted to put yourself out there.

The cost of living and socialising is relevant to that of the whole of London really. There is one cheap bar that we have found not too far away from the office, but as it is mainly outside we haven't been during the winter. I didn't live in London but one of the interns does and I know her rent is very high.

Not that great. Being based in Hammersmith means you are far out from central London, so if you are going on a night out its best to travel to central first. There is one bar that we all really like that is good fun, but no clubs really. The pubs around here are good too.

There has been the opportunity to join the netball team, which I didn't do as I am not very good at netball. Apart from that, there is the voluntEARs programme where you can volunteer outside and inside the workplace. Apart from that, most of the activities tend to happen inside of work.