Human Resources Intern Review

My placement year with WarnerMedia was better than I ever could've imagined. I was given so much responsibility and had so many opportunities to get involved and attend amazing events throughout the year. I learnt so much in my day-to-day job and from my amazing team, getting involved in so many projects throughout the year, and the structured training programme put in place for interns by the Learning and Development Team is second-to-none. Having such a big intern group (40+ interns in the same building) meant that I always felt supported and I also made some amazing friends. I couldn't recommend the company enough for a placement year.

My team always made me feel valued and appreciated throughout the year. Everyone always thanked me for my help, no matter how small what I was doing was. When I took charge of projects or had a major role in a project, I was always congratulated for doing well and I really felt proud afterwards. I was never worried that I wasn't doing well or that I was under performing as the team constantly reminded me that I was doing great.

My manager was extremely supportive throughout my whole year. We had weekly catch ups to discuss my workload to check that I wasn't overloaded or struggling to find things to do, and we would work out how to tackle these issues together if they did arise. I always felt like I could ask for help and I also felt supported personally and not just in my role.

My day-to-day role varied a lot, which meant some days I was busier than others. During specific periods, when the team knew I was particularly busy, they helped me by balancing out the workload between them so I never felt too overwhelmed. I felt I had a good balance in my role and learnt how to manage my time well so this wouldn't become an issue. When I felt like I wasn't busy enough, I would offer to help the team with various things which was always received well. This also meant that I was able to get exposure to other areas of the department that I wouldn't have got in my day-to-day role.

I was given a lot of responsibility during my placement year. I was able to assist in the running of our placement recruitment of over 60 interns for WarnerMedia, which included: advertising roles, promoting them on social media, liaising with universities, organising and helping to run assessment days, sending out contracts and helping with onboarding. This project gave me a lot of responsibility and allowed me to take ownership. I was also solely responsible for lot of weekly/monthly tasks that needed to be done for my team. I was relied on to complete these regularly which meant I had to learn to prioritise my tasks to make sure they were done.

During my placement year I have developed a variety of skills that will help me both in my degree and in my life. The intern training programme helped me to develop my presentation skills and my project planning skills, both of which I will use in my degree and in jobs after I graduate. We also learnt about personality types and did the MBTI questionnaire, which will help me in all aspects of my life when meeting new people. In my role, I have developed my time management, teamwork, organisation, communication and excel skills. These will be all be useful in my degree, when doing group work and balancing time with my dissertation and other coursework. They are also skills which I will carry with me into any jobs going forward.

The office atmosphere at Warner Bros. was great. There were over 40 interns and 20 apprentices in the office which meant you couldn't go anywhere without seeing at least one person you knew. There were always events and activations on for new films or anniversaries (e.g. Friends 25th Birthday - where we had the Friends sofa in the office) so there was never a dull day. Everyone who works in the office is really friendly and sociable which gave it a nice atmosphere. There were also lots of social spaces so you could go and meet other interns at lunch and relax away from your desk.

It was really well organised. The first day consisted of an induction just for interns so we could learn more about the business, what to expect and to get to know each other. Following this, we then had a handover week with the intern we were replacing so they could teach us about the day-to-day tasks we would be completing. This was really useful as it meant we could ask questions easily to someone who had been in our position. Throughout the year we had to complete perfomance reviews with our managers at the 3 month, 6 month and 1 year mark so we could see how we were progressing and to look back at how far we'd come. At the end of our placement we also had to give a presentation to our teams about our placement as a reflection exercise to look back on the year.

There was a structured training programme for all interns which compiled of different sessions throughout the year to help us develop various skills. This included presenting skills, project planning and learning our personality types using the MBTI questionnaire. We also all completed Inclusion and Belonging training. There were also lots of opportunities for us to attend a variety of talks and training sessions with senior employees in the business, as well as external speakers.

I would love to come back at work within WarnerMedia when I graduate. I loved everything about my placement year - the company is a fantastic place to work and my team were amazing. I truly believe it's a great fit for me and I would love to start my career here!

Yes, there was a great social scene amongst the placement students. We frequently had lunch together, especially in summer when we could go to the park, and we also met up after work and at the weekends. Lots of placement students who could not commute to London from their home addresses lived together as well which was very sociable.

I commuted from my family home so could not comment on the cost of living around where we worked, but London was quite expensive for socialising if we wanted to do an activity. However, there were often deals on in various bars around where we worked which was great, and there were also cheaper options for socialising as there were so many parks etc. around for us to go and sit in together.

The nightlife in London is great, there were lots of bars and pubs around where we worked that all the interns would frequently go to. The only downside would be the prices and that they were usually quite busy, so it was harder with a big intern group (but that's the same everywhere in London). Other than that, we always had a great time when we went out and if we booked ahead of time at the right place we could have a pretty cheap night.

There were lots of events and activities put on outside of work that the interns were encouraged to get involved in. We had events for new film releases, such as a Roller Disco for Birds of Prey release, and we also had the opportunity to get involved in charity events. Lots of us took part in the Sleep Out for Centrepoint in November, where we slept outside for a night to raise money for young homeless people in the UK, in which we raised over £10,000.