Consumer PC Marketing Intern Review

I really enjoyed working at HP for multiple reasons. The culture of the company is fantastic - they really have an employee first attitude, all Managers are supportive and approachable and the workplace ethic is great. I was also entrusted with a lot of responsibility, which gave me a chance to really gain some value from my experience.

I have felt valued by all the employees within my team. I have been entrusted with campaigns of real responsibility and have received recognition from the wider marketing team for my achievements. At HP I have never felt like I was just "an intern". My opinions and ideas were always considered and sometimes even implemented when making strategic plans for the next financial year,

My Manager was a great support to me throughout the year, providing both personal and professional guidance over the course of the 13 months of my internship. He also had a very strong focus on maintaining a positive work-life balance, so he helped me develop skills to manage my workloads and minimize stress.

Due to the nature of my role, the workload was heavily dependent on the stage of each campaign I was managing. Generally I felt I was comfortable with the amount of work I had to do - I was never bored, but didn't feel I was over-worked either. However, as to be expected in a marketing role, the week before a big launch or event I often found myself a lot busier.

Due to the fact a few members of my team left the company as a started in July, I had to step up and take on a lot of responsibility at an early stage in my internship. I managed multiple campaigns, working with a variety of internal teams and agencies.

I have found that a lot of my studies provided the basic knowledge underpinning the skills required for my job, however in a lot of ways I found that I gained so much knowledge through experience this year which will help me to better understand the learning in my final year and allow me to apply to real situations.

Generally the atmosphere in our office was great - all the employees were highly motivated and driven and being part of a large intern cohort of 26 people created a real sense of community. There were days where the office was very quiet and often on a Friday Managers work from home.

The internship was very well organised having been an established process for 15 years. From on boarding, to the first day all the way through to my final handover, I felt supported. We were assigned mentors from other departments as well as our own managers and were able to get involved in charity work as an extra-curricular activity.

I do feel this was one area of weakness for my placement. A lot of the skills and knowledge I have gained have been acquired through working and doing my job. It would have been nice to receive some formal training throughout the year to gain extra certifications or qualifications.

HP are known to take back graduates however it is dependent on the headcount within the company. They recently took on a new cohort of graduates who will still be on the scheme by the time I graduate and therefore I do not know if they will have the space to offer roles out next year when I finish Uni.

The social scene was good due to the large number of interns at the company. There were always nights out that people could join in with and often just a house party after work. I would have been nice to do more sober social events that didn't involve drinking e.g. bowling etc.

Reading was an expensive area to live, the rent was a lot higher than at my own university and we got a lot of extra fees applied to us by our landlords as well. Socialising wasn't too expensive if you went to students bars and clubs as there is a University near by.

Bracknell had no nightlife so we often went out in Reading which wasn't too far away and had a lot more options.

As part of our internship, outside of our work, we were set a target to raise £20,000 for charity and to do 1000 hours of volunteering. This gave us lots of opportunities to do various different events and activities such as Tough Mudder, bucket collections, assisting with marathons etc. which was fun.