Finance Planning Intern Review

I work in cost line management for the Disney Store finance team, forecasting, budgeting and analyzing my cost lines. I help maintain and update the P&L, I produce decks for forecast, budget and quarter close and do various types of reports such as Contractors, BRC, Store Labour and SPAR. Day to day varies as it depends what part of the financial cycle we are in. My focus is on the Bricks and Mortar Stores.

My excel skills have improved significantly as most our work is done here. I have learnt new finance programs such as SAP to pull costs through or look at POs, MicroStrategy which I use for refreshing my reports, COGNOS to upload documents to the US, RBI to create reports, and ERC/EDP to bring through data.

Yes I was given a lot of responsibility, especially the further along my placement I got. There is a lot of support at the beginning to check your work and help you build an understanding of the business and then as you progress you work more independently.

I had weekly catch ups with my line manager as well as team meetings where you were asked about work you were doing that week and key deadlines for that week. The team are all very supportive and happy to help if you need further explanation or are learning something new.

My team and the wider Disney culture has been amazing, its very inclusive and especially due to Covid when we came back into the office the company made a massive effort to make us feel welcome/plan activities. Everyone in our team is very supportive and you really feel included in the Disney Stores Team.

I really enjoyed my placement, I wasn't sure what to expect before starting as this is my first office type job but it exceeded my expectations. The work has been both enjoyable and challenging, I feel I have learnt a wide range of skills I would be able to take into future work. My team has been so wonderful and it has made me want to come back and work for Disney after university.

Yes

For students applying I think its important to do lots of research about the company and the role to see if this work is something you'd be interested in, it comes across strongly the candidates who have done their research before the assessment/interview process. You do learn all the excel skills you need once you start but for my own self-confidence if I were to reapply this is something I'd liked to have been more prepared for.