Audience Marketing Manager Review

Whilst it was difficult to know what to expect from the role due to the ambiguity of the job descriptions and the allocation process, on the whole it has been enjoyable and met my expectations.

Having reached the end of my year I feel an integral part of my team. I feel my colleagues see me as any other employee, value and can rely on me as such.

Whilst I join during a period of great change for my direct team, I have always had a raft of people around me who were always ready to assist when needed.

I personally don't like to find I have too much spare time on my hands. However at times the balance did swing too far the other way and I was working some pretty late nights. However as the FY has wound down I've hit a good balance.

One area Microsoft cannot be faulted is their willingness to delegate responsibility. Whilst I'd never claim to have been 'running the show', I feel I was integral to many activities we were running as a team that had significant impact on our Metrics/KPIs.

There is no question that the skills I have developed at Microsoft will be of great use regardless of the future career path I choose, there is no doubt in my mind that the greatest benefit I have derived from this placement is the 'soft' skills that relate to work in an office environment. Whilst not necessarily transferable to University these will no doubt be of great use in my future endeavours.

The atmosphere in my first office was brilliant, but having moved location there seemed to be a negative effect on the team's dynamic.

The whole internship was excellently organised, exceeding anything I had seen from any other company I looked in to. The only flaw I feel was the removal of the shared accommodation during induction week, something that when you speak to previous years they rave about but we did not get. I feel the dynamic of the Intern group was severely affected by this.

Whilst I undertook little formal training, my managers were always keen for me to gain experience in different areas of the business as well as working with 3rd parties.

Future prospects are plentiful, including the MACH scheme, and I look forward to exploring them.

I was disappointed with the social scene. Whilst it was there it didn't feel like there was a good range of events or a good mix of interns attending events. I put this down largely to our missing out on the shared accommodation in the first week, as mentioned in a previous question

Living on a budget in Reading is definitely possible, although some nights out did turn out to be rather expensive!

The nightlife in Reading is fairly shocking, dominated by bars rather than through-and-through clubs. Plenty of opportunities for bar crawls, however.

We were forever being offered a vast range of volunteering, sporting and other opportunities.