Digital Strategy Group & Value Consulting Intern Review

I truly had the best year I could have ever imagined. My internship proved that I can achieve my career goals, especially the ones that I thought were completely out of reach. I was very nervous when I joined as I never got the best grades prior to university and was worried that they would limit me on how far I can go. However, the people I was surrounded by pushed me to go above and beyond and out of my comfort zone, which ended up with me achieving way more that I thought I would within a placement year and also gain huge confidence to knowing what I want for my career and how I can go about achieving it. On top of this Adobe has a great work life balance with continuous events that included all the employees and made it a place you are excited to walk into in the morning.

The extend to which I felt valued by my employee is limitless. Before I joined, I had this image that intern were seen as an extra help in hand and as they are there for a short period of time there was only so much appreciation a team cold show. This was NOT the case, my team continuously showed how grateful they were for my help and went out of their way to give me feedback and help me strengthen my skills to get the most possible out of my 13 months. I even got awarded an award by my team which I did not expect, they truly cared about me as person, not just a team member.

I was constantly given support and guidance by management and supervisors without having to even ask. If I ever had a doubt or struggled on a an engagement, I could easily reach out for help and get qualitative support. Even when they had a lot on their plate, they would make the time and ensure I felt comfortable and guided on what to do. I could even seek advice if my concern was not work related which was extremely important, especially as an intern.

The great thing about working at Adobe is that you can pick the extend of how busy you want to be. There was always work to be done however, if you wanted to learn more and have more tasks or less withing reason - it was your choice. I particularly wanted to get the most I could out of my year there, therefore took on as much as I could, which came with a lot of opportunities and learning outcomes. However, I was still learning to prioritise and sometimes did not manage to balance everything as well as I hoped but I learnt how to for future roles and also learnt how to get certain tasks done faster to make my overall workload run more smoothly.

I got much more responsibility that I ever thought I would. I was responsible for multiple client engagements, by researching and articulating opportunities for improvements and then presenting my findings to a senior client audience. I was a business owner of multiple processes such as, our team reporting that helped track pipeline and report progress to management. Overall, I felt more like I was treated and given responsibilities of a full time analyst rather than an intern, which made me feel like I gained a much more solid experience that would highly benefit me in the future.

I have confidence that I will not only achieve a great overall grade but I will use my time I have left in my final year way more effectively. I feel like I know what I want out of my final year and know how I can steer it to benefit me after I graduate. I would have never seen my final year or any other studies the way I do if I did not do my placement year at Adobe. The skills I have learnt are transferable anywhere I go, as it has shaped me to approach everything differently and be more confident in achieving my set goals and more.

Overall the atmosphere was always positive and lively, there was always something going on that you could get involved and there was always creative ways of getting different teams included. The only thing I found challenging is that some teams felt very separated and would not want be interested in mixing with people outside of their team.

The overall set up was great however I did feel at times that I was not on placement as there were not many intern related activities, I also did not feel as well connected with the other interns as I hoped as there were not many opportunities to meet on a regular basis, although understandable as most the interns worked in a different office base than me. Although, for me I enjoyed sometimes feeling like I was not on a placement year and interacting more with senior staff. Saying this, I know that they got our feedback and are putting it into action by bringing out multiple new methods to strengthen the internships programs using our previous feedback.

We where given a generous budget in which we could take out training courses we wanted that will help strengthen our skills and benefit us in the future. There was also continuous events you could go to that involved key speakers and experts which would help train and develop you in multiple areas whether it is work or health related.

I definitely see myself working for Adobe again and am going to apply after I graduate as I know I would enjoy working there. There are multiple roles to pick from and opportunity to change if you feel like you would like to try something different which makes it very appealing. The culture is one if not the key aspect that makes Adobe extremely appealing for future employment, which in my opinion is the most important thing to look for when looking at applying to an organisation.

There was many social events you could attend and work drinks however, I did not feel they were as busy as you would like. It felt like everyone stuck to their team drinks more and if you wanted to get more involved in the social scene you would have to push yourself to meet people from different teams to be able to enjoy the events more.

London is expensive, end of story. You would always go out for lunch or a couple drinks and it would rarely have a small price tag, however Shoreditch is not as bad as other areas and there were many times Adobe provided food and drink in the office or you would have team dinners which made it much more balanced.

I really enjoyed the nightlife in Shoreditch, there are so many different places you can go and they all have a unique character. It was definitely handy having it right around the corner as you could enjoy it after work or know best places to go on the weekend with friends.

Yes, there were events and sports teams however, it was hard to find out these events sometimes and could be more advertised. When you did get involved in an event it would always be great and creative as well as opportunities to meet people from different firms which helped a lot with networking.