International PR and AR Intern Review

The role was interesting and varied. No two days were the same, the topics I covered and projects I worked on were all different. It taught me valuable skills that I can transfer into many different future jobs and allowed me to work with lots of different people at different levels within the industry. There were lots of opportunities to get involved with outside of my role once I had my day job nailed down and so there was always something interesting for me to work on.

Within HPE you are treated as a regular employee rather than an intern. Many of the people you work with won't even be aware that you are an intern unless you explicitly tell them yourself. My work input was valued by my team and they were very open with how grateful they were for my being there. Occasionally there were other employees that felt their role was more important or whatever but I think that is a reflection of them personally rather than the company ethic. Overall, my team were very thankful for my support over the year.

My manager was always available should I have any questions and was very quick to help. However, she was happy to send over tasks when needed and let me manage my own time and schedule without checking in too often. We had weekly catch ups where she would provide a list of anything that needed done but she was always conscious of asking too much of me and regularly checked that my workload was reasonable.

Working in PR the workload varies based on what is going on in the company and therefore fluctuated quite a lot. If there were events then it was hectic and I was busy every minute of every day, but if it was just a normal work week with no PR activities then it was pretty chilled and I could work through my regular reports. There was always something to work on but the busyness of the wider team impacted the speed at which things needed done.

I had a lot of responsibility as I was planning budgets, working with external agencies and organising events. My manager trusted my opinion was happy to let me take the lead on things. By the end of the placement year a lot of the agencies saw me as their first point of contact rather than other people on the team as I was so heavily involved in their budgeting and planning process. It was a reasonable level of responsibility for an intern, where I felt like my work was valued and impactful without being stressed that if something went wrong the company would collapse.

The time management and self discipline skills learnt by creating my own schedule and not being overseen at all times will definitely help me when I return to my studies. The skills learnt of working within a company, even just email etiquette and keeping a copy of work done will help with any future role. The insight that I got into communications planning will definitely stay with me and the awareness of the different things companies have to consider will help me in future roles.

It was a large office with some sections of dedicated desks and other hot desks. Having a dedicated desk was fine for work but as my team worked mostly remotely it could get a bit boring on slow days. Lunch time was always fun as there is a large intern community there and we all sat together so it was a welcome break from work each day that really let us wind down each day.

The first month as a handover made the transition between interns very easy for the company but also ensured I was prepared for my role before being left on my own. The company also helped with meeting people to live with and organised housing for our first month so that we could find somewhere to live in the area. There were regular intern only sessions to help us develop skills throughout the year and check in with the intern team to make sure everything was okay. I also had a mentor and had regular catch ups with him and discussed things I wanted to learn outside of my job.

There were intern sessions throughout the year to help us develop soft skills and more company focused skills. There was also a sales school you could apply for which helped interns be more prepared for future jobs in sales, although I did not join this. There was an internal learning platform where you could take courses in all sorts of areas, to develop skills in different IT apps or even just things like communication skills. The mentor program also allowed for us to learn about roles outside of the team we were working in.

HPE has a great company culture and I really enjoyed working there. The people were pretty much always willing to help and were very supportive all year. Personally, I didn't like the area the office was in so I wouldn't like to go back if I was based in that office but would definitely be interested in another office or a remote role. There is very much a sales focus in the company and sales jobs don't interest me so much but as with any company there are other opportunities there too.

There was a large intern community in the office and within the actual office it was great. We all had meetings together for different projects we worked on, spent lunch times eating together and playing table tennis and would meet in the kitchen for tea breaks. Outside of work, we did organise a few nights out, parties and some sporty stuff. Scheduling things was difficult sometimes with the large group but overall it was a good time.

It's not quite London prices but it's not up North either. There are 2 spoons in Reading so they're cheap enough but in nightclubs it could get a bit expensive. We also tended to go out after work if we were ever in the London office which was obviously quite expensive. Rent was fairly reasonable though and there was an aldi nearby so it wasn't too bad to just live there, the socialising was what made prices go up.

Reading is a student town and so there are a few clubs and the students union there. Week nights were better for night's out when you were actually there but not great in work the next day so we tried to stick to weekends which is always going to be a bit more quiet in a student area. Plenty of bars and restaurants around though so definitely always somewhere to go if you want to.

We had time each month that we could spend volunteering and there were always opportunities being sent around that we could spend that doing. There were also internal teams to get involved with for diversity, like women and pride groups. As well as those, there was an intern committee which organised different things both in and outside of work for the intern community to get involved with. You could also apply to be on that committee and be involved with planning it all.