Strategy and Planning Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement year at HPE. I had a variety of opportunities to get involved in projects outside of my daily role and network with lots of different people. The skills i developed were both technical and personal and my confidence grew alot.

The role you are given is the equivalent of a full time job. You feel like the work you are completing is essential to the running of the business and the people you work with are happy to help you with anything you may be struggling with.

In my team we had an overarching manager who ran some intern development session with us and we communicated with on social calls, especially whist working from home. We also had departmental managers who i communicated with everyday and set development goals which we worked on throughout the year.

Everyday i had a number of tasks i would need to complete which would sometimes leave me with some spare time. I did however have a number of other projects i was involved in so was able to work on these during this free time, meaning i always had something to do during my working hours.

The responsibility of doing my daily tasks was important from the start and as my placement progressed i was given more adhoc responsibilities and felt more trusted to complete tasks correctly.

I have developed my excel skills significantly which will help me with my third year modules. Also my organisation and time keeping have had to be perfect to be able to do the job so i will be able to bring this into my studies. Also confidence in asking for help will allow me to utilize university resources better.

the office was a very inviting place and was fully open plan so no one had their own office. I liked this set up as it meant that it was less intimidating to approach people to ask for help or to engage in a conversation with them. There were also lots of small quiet rooms which were useful when you needed to get an important task done undisturbed. There were also lots of communal areas to grab a coffee and have lunch.

There was a clear structure to the placement with a number of development days added into the year, as well as catch ups with the early careers team to check on progress. When moving to working from home this did drop off a little bit but this is understandable as organising events virtually is much harder than doing it in person. Overall i believe it wad well structured and i was aware of what was coming up throughout the year.

The company did not offer any external training programs but within the company there was lots on offer. I was able to complete mental health and suicide prevention training which i found really helpful. There were also a number of webinars which covered topics such as wellness, health and the environment which i enjoyed attending and learning about. We had a number of development sessions with our manager who helped us with skills such as presenting.

We have had discussions regarding graduate positions which are currently on hold due to the pandemic. We have however been asked to leave our details and ensured that the company aim to retain young talent so the prospects are high. I came in contact with a number of employees who were originally interns and have now been in the business for a number of years and many of them are now in high senior positions.

There were over 60 other interns at the company which meant the social aspect was great. At the beginning of the year the company organised for us to stay in university halls as a way of all getting to know eachother. There was also an intern bar crawl on our first week and then at the end of the year the company usually provides a budget for an intern ball which unfortunately needed to be cancelled this year.

Personally i lived at home during the year but there were a number of interns who moved into shared housing but i do not know how much this cost. Bracknell is very near to reading so most of our social events took place in the city. It is a university city so there were lots of uni events and offers which we were able to use but generally it is quite expensive to go out in reading.

Reading has lots of nightlife as it is a uni city so that aspect was really good. We had many nights out and also went for a few nice meals and drinks there. From Bracknell it is around a 20 minute drive so the taxi was around £30 after a night out. There are also some pubs and restaurants in Bracknell so we didnt always have to go into reading to be able to go out.

Apart from the socializing, there are a number of gyms near the office which lots of us joined throughout the year. The train to London is only about 30 minutes so we sometimes went into London.