PR Manager Intern Review

My placement at Microsoft has been incredibly exciting, particularly because of the PR team I work in. Through my year here, I've worked across the entire business, including Xbox, Surface and our commercial business function. Every element of that work has been exciting and my team has supported me in investing time in areas I most enjoy/see a career in.

My team constantly told me how valuable I was, I've scored this as a 7 and not higher mostly because those surrounding me were so experiences and sometimes I didn't feel I was adding value myself - but per their comments that's likely self-doubt. I was able to spend more time working in the area of the business where my skills were most suited and where I could offer the most support, which was unusual for an intern but greatly appreciated by my team.

My direct team are incredibly senior and well experienced, whenever they could they offered personal 1:1 support and mentoring, with one team member, an ex journalist, consistently editing my work and sharing feedback - allowing me to really grow my news writing skills through the year. Because of the seniority of my team, and the level of work that they deal with, I couldn't always receive this support on a day-by-day basis - for these times I had colleagues and friends in the agency team that offered support and coaching.

I really enjoy being busy, and found my core area of work incredibly exciting. The quantity of work was high but I very much managed how much I took on myself and was never pushed to work extra, but often did because I enjoyed the work. There were times where extra "stretch" projects and training exercises from HR given to interns by the rest of the business were not flexible around my core workload, which did occasionally make things difficult.

This very much built through the course of the year, but I've taken on a lot of responsibility and gained the trust of my team. Working in communications for such a big corporate, you have to learn that everything you write will be edited - but the same applies for anyone publishing content through the team. Now at the end of my year, I handle customer calls daily - often on my own - and I have previously pitched journalists stories and events, as well as handling them at these events.

The skills I developed and experience gained in my core role will be invaluable as I complete my business degree. My main chunk of work recently has been on customer storytelling - I've seen how lots of businesses have innovated with technology to overcome a huge range of business challenges. This scores a 9 and not a 10 because of the quality of that experience, but some mandatory training is less useful in future applications and as described above, is often a barrier when trying to invest time in your core role and progress there.

I worked across a range of offices, in Reading, Paddington and with our agency in central London. Each had a different atmosphere but I enjoyed them for different reasons, the London offices were more fun and social, and working there sometimes resulted in after work drinks. The Reading office had less of a fun atmosphere but was a typical tech campus and quite an exciting place to be.

The core role was incredible, and I'd say the best placement out there for me. I've had all sorts of experiences, ranging from attending conferences abroad to attending global gaming events and visiting exciting start-ups. I was also supported incredibly well by my team and it was clear they wanted to see me succeed. The way the entire internship is set up gives other teams oversight and say in how you spend your time, my experiences with stretch projects were often positive but also a source of frustration, while we were often told certain training sessions, that weren't incredibly useful, were mandatory and we were communicated with in a patronising way by some organising these and other sessions.

We have access to a huge range of training resources, and broadly Microsoft strongly encourages it's employees to learn regardless of where you are in your career. The support and experiences provided by my direct team was certainly the most valuable however, and that day-to-day coaching and teaching is what will add value in my future career.

Unfortunately there is not an option to progress in PR with this company, other than through the agency, which doesn't provide the same remuneration package or support. However, my team have made it clear they will support me in the future. There are also no routes into marketing or related careers as a graduate at Microsoft and the HR team does not do a great job of offering support unless you are applying for one of their existing, predefined roles in sales or technical roles.

There was, but if you didn't get on brilliantly with other interns there wasn't much other options as we were placed in Reading. It took a while, but I built my closest relationships with my colleagues in our agency and found I fit in with these best as we were doing similar work.

Cheap because we were in Reading - but there weren't many other perks to the location. Restaurants were limited, bars less-so but there wasn't really a young-professional kind of scene anywhere. Being close to London meant we could travel in, or go for a drink after work, but that all added to the cost and travel, while expensed, made it difficult. Plus side is that I've saved plenty for my final year at University!

Can't get 50 words on this - bit abysmal in Reading honestly and doesn't feel very safe.

Number 10 is listed as "endless opportunities" - and I'd say they were endless, but that put a lot of pressure on and it makes it difficult to navigate when you start work. I decided to just focus on my core role and have benefitted as a result, but others seem to have got lost in a web of extra opportunities.