Strategy, Planning and Operations Intern Review

My role within strategy and planning was to help support the Enterprise sales team. This consisted of creating, providing and developing reporting packs and excel documents for the managers to help them analyse their performance, teams and business areas throughout the year. My day to day tasks included completing a number of adhoc requests from both my manager and sales reps as well as help with the change of financial year at HPE and forecasting process.

I have learnt many skills during my placement, with the main skill being how to use excel to create efficient and effective reports through the use of pivot tables, formulas, graphs, etc... In addition to this I have also developed my confidence in presenting and public speaking to a much higher level and improved my time management. Other skills I've developed are: analytical skills and how to present work clearly, email etiquette, interpersonal skills, teamwork, and prioritisation.

Yes, despite being an intern, I was trusted with a lot of responsibility. I think that because HPE have a month where the old interns train the new interns, this helps ensure that the new interns have a good understanding of their role and the company, so that the managers then have confidence in their interns to be able to take on tasks and projects. In addition to this at the beginning of the year my manager gave me a number of projects to take on and I was able to get involved with other projects throughout the year to help benefit my development and get the most out of my placement year.

I received lots of support and guidance not only at the beginning but throughout the whole year. The first month was an onboarding month where my previous intern taught me everything I needed to know and handed over all the tasks that were required for my role. In addition to this I also had one on one meetings each week with my manager where I was able to ask any questions, gain feedback, or just have a catch up. HPE also have a mentor programme, so I was assigned a mentor who gave me invaluable advice and helped me progress with my personal development goals.

HPE have a great company culture and are very welcoming to all the interns. At the beginning everyone was really friendly and always happy to help if I needed it. Despite joining remotely due to covid, I definitely felt part of the team and we even had schedule coffee meetings to keep that informal side going that is often missed when working from home. HPE made me feel valued despite being such a large and successful company.

I enjoyed my placement very much at HPE. Although I spent the whole year working from home, it was still an amazing experience and I was able to learn so much and develop skills in many areas. The strategy and planning team made me feel very welcome despite not being able to meet the majority of the team in person. I enjoyed my placement because every day was different and I was given the opportunity to take on new tasks and focus on the areas that I wanted to develop in.

Yes

I would say to make sure you understand who Hewlett Packard Enterprise are - what their products are and their values and also search for any recent news articles about them so that you are up to date. My role in particular was quite excel based so I think learning about the basic formulas and pivots tables would definitely help. Be confident and put in the time to prepare for an interview (e.g. have examples prepared for different scenarios).