Sales Solutions Professional Review

Based on my personal experiences, I would highly recommend a placement year here. I worked in the commercial sales department during my year and had an incredible time, meeting some incredible people.

Despite being part of a very large team, I felt like people knew who I was and what I was doing. They trusted me to assist them and even lead on important pitches to their customers and partners.

During the first half of the year the leadership teams and mentoring structures were crucial to my development and I felt the support network was amazing. Any time I had a question or query I could message someone and get a response very quickly, often with an offer to sit down and go through the answer in more detail.

In my role I was responsible for managing my own calendar. I found I was busy in H1 but extremely busy during the second half of the year. However that said, I wanted it to be that way - so I can't complain!

I was encouraged to lead on my own commercial accounts and manage on them with the Microsoft support network in the background. I was attending meetings on my own, arranging events on my own and of course emailing/calling on my own - I was even given a target to hit. All with the shadow support of a great team behind me.

I learned an immense amount - so much I can't even put into words. Running meetings, building relationships, mending relationships, how to pitch, how to manage your time, how to network, navigating corporate politics -- the list could go on and on. I would caveat and say that there was very little FORMAL training. Almost all learning was on the job or through talking to people.

I had great people around me so the atmosphere was always fun and enjoyable. Everyone seemed to get along well for the most part and the offsites were always good fun throughout the year. Again, I would caveat and say it depends on department, as oftentimes in the latter half of the year the sales department gets very busy and people spend less and less time in office.

My personal experience was next to seamless. During onboarding you are given a huge online training set to complete however this helps to position what you are learning over the next few months. Shortly after that you will be onboarded by the previous interns, who help to answer any questions you encounter on the training. I was also given two mentors and managers as well who helped me throughout the year. Caveat - very little formal training after onboarding

I would argue it depends how you spin this. Directly, there's very little investment into your training and development. As I have said, there isn't much formal training. The only thing I can remember doing is one local offsite for a personality insights day. Indirectly, however, almost everyone you speak to at the company would be willing and able to give you their time - which in my opinion is a considerable investment.

Many of the roles you will do as an intern are proper graduate / full - time employee roles, so the prospects if you do well are pretty good as you will know the hiring managers and the team around you. Personal brand is key in companies like these and knowing the network is crucial. That said, change is constant so stay on your toes and network around.

We had an intern committee to manage the 60 (or so) people in our cohort. They did a cracking job arranging events, socials and parties that involved everyone there. There is also a great football team there with the option to travel to an international tournament with the team and potentially other interns - if you get in..!

Expensive - it's either Reading or London and neither are cheap places. Rent you are looking at anywhere in the region of £ 390 - 800 per calendar month, depending on if you house share or go for an individual studio. Cost of going out is high, unless you know people at the Uni who can get you into Park Bar or Union..!

Reading nightlife - I'll leave tripadvisor to do the reviews here but overall pretty decent. You have a lot of variety with the choices of clubs or bars, and they all play a variety of different music. However as with the previous question it isn't cheap, especially compared to nights out up north.

Through work there were a couple of good opportunities to get out, including clubs, socials and the gym classes on the lanw during Summer... however as mentioned my personal favourite was travelling abroad with the football team for an international tournament - one of the highlights of the year for me.