Product Intern Review

As a Product Management intern you get to work with multiple departments, getting a broad understanding of the business. The tasks are mixed, consisting of reports and data analysis, roadmapping, competitive analysis and vision and strategy. There are opportunities to work on making product management process changes, and finding work that you believe would benefit the company. You interact with your team daily, and frequently meet with people outside of your immediate team. You are given a great amount of responsibility for an intern, which leaves you feeling motivated and accomplished.

I have learnt and developed my analytical skills, applying them to product work to add value to the business and guide future decisions. The intern projects have also helped me to develop my leadership skills, after taking on the role of leader in project one. The task allowed to put my knowledge about situational leadership into action, and understand that different people have different responses to a certain style of leadership. Time management was also important because of the varied tasks and deadlines.

I worked up to tasks with more responsibility because they required a better understanding and knowledge of the travel industry. Once I gained this experience and became more confident I took on tasks in which I felt added more value to the business. As time went on I became more independent with my tasks, and felt secure in what I was doing. The tasks also required me to work with different teams so this increased my responsibility as I had more people relying on my work.

Within my team, my manager was my main source of support - we had meetings at least weekly and she ensured I felt comfortable with my tasks and allowed me to develop skills that I was less confident in. I was also assigned a team buddy, who was there to talk to about how I was getting on and also helped find me work when I had spare time. I also had a mentor in a different function who gave me tips and supported me when I was struggling with certain things.

The company cultured is relaxed yet professional. Although the office attendance is quite low, there was still a strong company culture despite the amount of remote workers. In the office there was plenty of space to do group or individual work. Travelport has a great scheme in place which allows you to work cross-functionally with interns which really helps to eliminate any silo effect that could happen between different departments. Overall I felt comfortable with the culture and atmosphere.

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement year. I maintained motivation by having different types of work throughout the year - working in product, marketing, experience in business intelligence, internpreneurship projects and getting involved in corporate social responsibility initiatives. My team was supportive and helped me to develop. I feel i have come away from the internship as a more confident person who feels suited to a business environment and is also in a better position for when grad applications open.

Yes

Make sure you take on every opportunity, and take on tasks that are out of your comfort zone as this is how you will improve. It is important to create good working relationships as this is key to maintaining motivation, interest and enjoying the work that you do. Make sure to reach out to those in different departments so that you can explore other areas in the business that interest you or even just to expand your knowledge.