Marketing and Communications Intern Review

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my year at Mentor and felt like I learnt a huge amount. During the year I was exposed and involved in a huge range of projects covering many aspects of marketing while also being given a great deal of responsibility while being very welcomed into the team.

Although the MAD marketing team is split across the world everyone was super friendly and always so helpful and supportive and made you feel so included in the team. Throughout the year I always felt like my thoughts and opinions were always taken seriously and I never felt dismissed due to being an intern.

Both my line manager and team manager were both so supportive and always on hand to offer guidance and support while also allowing me to make my own decisions and essentially learn from mistakes which was vital to help me learn and take away important lessons from the year. Every week I had one to one meetings with my manager to ensure I was happy with my workload and was given time to discuss any ideas or questions I had, which I found very beneficial.

After my weekly discussion with my manager I was set different tasks to carry out throughout the week. Some weeks would be busier than others depending on what was going on in the calendar there were set tasks that needed carrying out weekly/monthly alongside a few larger projects which I worked on alongside finding the right balance. I felt like I worked quite quickly so sometimes had to ask for more tasks to work on which never seemed an issue and was always provided with more work as I liked to always be busy.

During my placement I was given plenty of responsibility which involved managing 6 social media channels, to attending events and organising our presence at trade shows. While organising our attendance at events I was trusted in the organising process but was always able to raise any questions I had with my manager who would always offer support, however she was always keen for me to give things my best efforts first which we would then review together and add any improvements.

I have learnt a great deal during my placement while being exposed to so many different areas of marketing. I have managed to develop my skills so much which I think is going to help me greatly when it comes to applying for jobs after my final year, as I have so many real life examples of projects which I will be able to talk about on my CV as well as in interviews. I also feel the skills I have learnt while on placement will help my understanding during my final year of studies and will also help me to manage my time more effectively.

I found the atmosphere relatively quiet for my personal preference, but very relaxed. Everyone in the office was very friendly but often kept themselves to themselves and got on with their work. The marketing team all sit together in the office which is very helpful and are a bit chattier than the rest of the office.

Due to Mentor running work placements for a long time the placement is set out really well, my manager was very helpful when it came to my review with my university completing all the necessary documents without hesitation. Due to the integration into Siemens STS Marketing team my role changed a lot during my placement but my manager always worked hard to make my role well established giving me the perfect level of responsibility.

During my time on placement I completed several training courses which has boosted my CV and I learnt skills which will be great to take back to university. Including: DiSC Training, 5 Choices Training as well as several SABACloud online training courses which were open to chose from and during my placement I was able to complete as many as I could time wise.

Due to Mentor being a smaller company the options for graduate employment are limited within the Marketing team, however Siemens offer several graduate roles which I have expressed interest in as they seem like a positive company to work for and I have really enjoyed B2B marketing during my placement.

In the Towcester office there are 5 interns, 3 of which I lived with. There wasn't much of a social scene with colleagues in the office which could have been due to the location of the office, however the marketing team often went for team lunches and sometimes socialized outside of work.

Towcester itself is more expensive to live in due to being a more affluent area however Milton Keynes and Northampton are both a short drive to the office which offers cheaper accommodation especially Northampton which has lots of student accommodation. Socializing in Northampton bars and restaurants I felt was a pretty standard price.

Northampton has a few different nightclubs due to being a student city and a few good bars, which i think is the same as Milton Keynes. The train into central London is also a pretty short journey and can be relatively cheap with a student rail card which is good for days off.

There weren't any opportunities at work to get involved in activities, however due to having 5 interns in the office there is always the opportunity to meet up with them outside of work or during lunch. The Towcester office has just had a gym built on site which also offers classes which might boost the opportunities of actives outside of work.