E-commerce and Innovation Review

I found my placement really interesting as it gave me an insight into innovation within a large enterprise. I found the opportunity to study innovation within an already established business as really insightful. It taught me about the challenges that have to be overcome in order for a large company to remain innovative. As a member of the innovation team, I have got to interact with employees from across the business from the senior leadership team to training which gave me a deep understanding of all the businesses functions.

I felt as though all the members of my team valued my work. This was evident by the fact that my team members would regularly give me praise when I finished a project I was working on. The overall culture of BSH was very welcoming and I would regularly be stopped in the corridor to have a chat with someone from another department. Its this culture that made me feel so welcome at BSH.

My manager and all my team members were very supportive from the beginning of my placement. They were always very supportive of the projects I was working on and gave me praise when I deserved it. This really helped me feel as though I was part of the team and not just another intern.

I felt as though the workload varied quite a lot day on day. Some days I was very busy and other days there was less to do. This was nice though as I never felt too stressed and overworked. If I ever did run out of work I just needed to ask my manager for more and he would provide me some work to do. The extra time also gave me an opportunity to help other members of my team.

I was given a lot of opportunities to grow by my manager. One of the tasks I had to do was by-weekly Smart home drop-in sessions. This was a lot of responsibility as I never knew who was going to show up. I had to present to employees from across the business. This was a great opportunity to network with people from other areas of the business.

The skills I have developed on this placement will be irreplaceable when I go back to university next year. I am really able to see where the theory I learn in the classroom can be applied to real-life scenarios. There is also smaller but just as important things that I have learned. Whether it be my ability to communicate my thoughts in an email respectfully to getting a beginner insight into how Dialogflow works.

The atmosphere in my office was generally quite quiet but this was because my office was very busy. This does not mean that we did not have fun though. We would regularly have a discussion about key events that are going on in the world. I also got to plan a very interesting department day where we got to play video games.

The placement was very well set up with a lot of support whenever we needed it. At the beginning of the placement, we are given a previous intern as a buddy. This gave us someone to ask questions to when we did not feel as though they were appropriate to ask our managers.

We were giving a lot of opportunities for personal growth. This came in the form of both mandatory and voluntary training. We got presentation training, managing self and managing stress training. We were then given the opportunity to sign up to a range of other training from project management to excel.

My future prospects within the organisation are good as they do offer a graduate position. However, the graduate's pay is not that competitive so I will not be taking them up on the offer. I would love to come back but as money is my main motivator I felt as though it wasn't right for me

There was a lot of other interns employed by the company which created a really nice atmosphere. They also have intern houses available which creates a good social scene amongst the interns. The nightlife in the area is not that great but there are plenty of day time activities to choose from. Milton Keynes also has great travel links across the UK.

I lived close to work not in an intern house which cost me £525 a month. I usually spent around £50 per week on food. There was a lot of opportunities to socialize within Milton Keynes. One of the issues of Milton Keynes is getting around without a car. But there are good train links across the UK.

The nightlife in Milton Keynes is not that great. There are a few clubs but not that much choice. If nightlife is one of your main motivators I wouldn't recommend BSH's Milton Keynes site. However, we did have a great Christmas party where they got Rob Becket in to do a set.

Yes as a group of interns we planned a few events outside of work. We had a few house parties and went to some outdoor activity parks. The company also offers a subsidized gym membership. The center of MK has an indoor ski slope and other activities if you are interested in that sort of thing.