Strategy & Planning Review

My time at Hewlett Packard Enterprise exceeded my placement expectation. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here at HPE as i truly felt like a valued employee, doing important work, and not just an intern who they did not trust. Despite COVID-19 happening throughout my placement year, i have been able to fully complete my 13 month placement, as well as teaching my replacement intern my role. Overall i enjoyed my time on placement and grateful for the experience.

As an intern at HPE, i truly felt valued and respected as if i was a full time permanent member of staff. I was given a huge amount of responsibility, enough to challenge my skills and develop my learning, but all at a pace i was able to handle. The files i created and work i produced, was used higher up in the business so i could actually see where my work was going used within the business.

From the very start of my placement year support was given to me. We started with a 4 week on-boarding period where the old interns used this time to teach us our roles and get us integrated into the business. This was very helpful and reassuring when joining a large organisation and also very useful when trying to understand the business. And after they left i had regular 121 with my line manager to work closely with my development.

In my role, i was given a huge amount of responsibility which lead to me being very busy on a daily basis. At the start it was quite overwhelming as i was new to doing the files and quite time consuming. Bus as i got comfortable it took less time, which allowed me to get involved in other projects outside my role to develop my exposure to different areas across the business. so overall my role kept me quite busy, but then i could choose to get involved with more projects to keep me busy.

I was given a huge deal of responsibility by my team in my role. The work i produced for the team was used by the wider business to identify trends in data and gaps in the market, which allowed them to put plans in place and target those areas. It was clear to me and i fully understood the impact of my work and why it was required, along with the importance of meeting deadlines and working with other departments.

The skills learned and experienced gain whilst on placement far exceeded my expectation and more that i have learnt in the first couple years at uni. It has taught me the soft skills and the foundations for working in a real life working environment and the demands of a job. Something i would not have received on my course while at uni. My placement year at HPE has set me up ready to start my career.

I has based in the Bracknell office where most of the 40 intern cohort was based. It was great as you would see lots of interns around the office, so i never felt isolated as i could go across and speak to other interns in the same position as me. Since COVID and we have been working from home, i miss the office and easily being over to speak to different people that i don't always work with.

HPE has a brilliant set up to the intern program with 4 weeks of handover to integrate the new interns into their roles. During this time, we, the new interns built a great friendship with the current interns and was sad to see them leave. There was never a point during my internship where i was unsure of how i was progressing or what was lined up next for me to get on with and develop.

When we started, we were assigned a mentor. We have the option to choose which area of the business we would like our mentor to work in. This was especially good as it allowed us to get a great contact in a specified area we wanted, which was in sales for me. The Intern Sales Ready Course provided me the opportunity to learn a skill outside of my role and my mentor further enhanced this .

The opportunities are very appealing but sales focused as the company is a sales organisation after all. They have an intensives program set up which outlines the graduate program and returning back to HPE. They do look to hire and keep interns in the business. A lot of the graduate roles are offered in the Manchester office so you would have to consider relocating, but it is the central hub for grads, similar to how Bracknell is for interns.

The social scene was very good amongst interns as many of us had to relocate for placement. This meant that we lived in a house together to felt like being back at uni living with people are own age. There was a lot of socials organised at the beginning to make us feel welcome and a few nights out too. In lock down the socials have continued virtually in the form of pub quiz's and virtual drinks.

I lived in reading and then commuted into bracknell. it was only a short journey no more than 20 min in the morning and there was a bus route too. Its cheaper to live in reading compared to bracknell and the social aspect was better as there is a uni in reading which attracts a lot more student into the city. And closer to the shopping centre too which was somewhere to go on the weekends. Reading was abit cheaper than Bracknell.

In reading the nightlife was quite good. There are a range of bars and clubs to go to as it has a university in the city so it category for students. The bus's and and taxi's were frequent as well as the trains to London when we went on nights out there as it was only a short 30 trip and not too expensive then using a rail card or going via off peak travel times.

HPE have a big focus on volunteering opportunities and giving back to the community. Even so much as allowing us to volunteer one afternoon a month during work time. This was organised by HPE themselves as well as us organizing our own for causes that we chose. In October we took part in a 45 mile bike ride for the princes trust where employees and family from all across the county came together to ride from Buckingham palace to Windsor castle.