Sales & Marketing Intern Review

The social aspect of the job was great, I made some good friends. The job itself wasn't the most enjoyable, the placement lacked structure, at points I would have little work to do and had little responsibility throughout the year.

You are treated as an 'intern', I remember at one point there was a meeting, and I overheard a senior colleague say 'don't worry about the interns, they don't need to be there'. Also, a factory visit was also arranged initially including interns, but at a later date we were uninvited with no reason given.

During the year I had no appraisals. The only time I received feedback was when my tutor visited and spoke to my line manager for around half an hour. My manager was often out of the office at sales meetings so I had very little direct contact with him.

As mentioned, the placement lacked structure, sometimes I would have days where I literally did nothing, although I believe this was down to the fact Mattel employed too many placement students for the year of my placement, this has since been downgraded so things may have changed.

I rarely had a high amount of responsibility, much of the tasks I completed were targeted at Interns.

The sales side of the placement gave me new skills that I wouldn't have developed had I not completed this placement. I learn't how to negotiate and communicate with senior buyers and how to act during sales meetings. Aside from this, very little will help me with my final year of my degree or future jobs.

The atmosphere in the office was fairly chilled, there was always 'banter' with other colleagues and alot of social events were organised. Although, the environment was fairly political and alot of talking behind peoples backs occurred throughout the year.

As mentioned, the placement lacked organisation or structure, When I joined there was no clear work structure or guidelines on what I would be doing over the year. A number of other interns also had this problem.

Very little training was offered to interns, it was more focused towards permanent employees. I didn't partake in any training courses or development workshops, and I believe only one intern actually got the opportunity to partake in a paid for training course.

The company itself does not have a graduate scheme, they only employ interns upon graduation if an opportunity arises, such as a colleague leaving. Out of the 16 of us I believe 2 interns have been offered jobs upon graduation, but this is only due to colleagues leaving the company.

As there was a large group of us, the social side was great, we would go out for nights out almost every week, the guys would play football every Tuesday, and we even went to Frankfurt to play 5-a-side football for a weekend against other Mattel employees from around Europe.

It's difficult to comment on this question as I commuted from home as I only lived 20 minutes from the company offices. Although bars/clubs were reasonably priced from nights I went out.

The area was fairly poor for nightlife, we would often have to travel out of Maidenhead, to Reading/Windsor/London as there were very little clubs or bars in Maidenhead, and the ones in Maidenhead didn't have dedicated student nights so it wouldn't be an amazing crowd.

There was a social committee which enabled employees to get involved with social activities every couple of weeks, such as paintballing, football, theatre trips and laser quest. There was also a christmas party and company conference at off site locations all paid for by the company, including over night accommodation and travel.