Project Management Intern Review

Working at The Walt Disney Compay was great fun. I had the opportunity to learn many new skills and the people around me were very fun, pleasant people to work with. Disney in the UK offer over 80 internships a year, a placement to suit everyone's career plans. I would greatly recommend a placement with Disney, there is a great intern social life and in general everyone across the company is fun to work with.

Every time I mention that I'm leaving Disney in a few weeks there is always someone who says, "why are you leaving?" The majority of people don't even realise I'm an intern and are surprised when they find out I am. This just shows how valued I am as a 'cast member' (name for a Disney employee) at Disney. My manager left over a month ago and there is only one other person and myself in my team at the moment. I cannot feel more valued as a team member at this moment in time as my director realises how important I am to the team for the success of the team.

My manager who recently left gave me a great deal of support, set me goals and objectives at the start of the year and incouraged my learning in so many ways over the year. I have no doubt however that when a new manager is hired they will be just as great and supportive as she was. My director who is based in Germany who visits the UK very regularly is very very supportive, is happy to listen and give guidance when required. She is also contactable at all times during working hours and is happy to help with anything and everything.

My busy-ness varied on a week-to-week basis dependent upon whether our department had a training course taking place the next week or not. When we have a course running the next week we are crazily busy to the point of never being able to stop in preparation for the course. When we don't have a course taking place I am usually very busy but I enjoy everything I do / the role I'm in and the days fly by.

A LOT of responsibility. My role is to organise and provide training courses to senior management, directors, VP's and SVP's across Europe, Middle East and Africa. If I mess up on any of the organisation of any of the courses then I can make the team look really bad especially to such senior people. Even just the simpliest of things such as forgetting to book a car at the airport for a Director for Italy who is attending a course in the UK, needless to say they are not going to be happy about it and neither would my director as it would look bad for her too.

I think the skills I have developed during my year at Disney will stay with me for life. I have developed a wealth of skills such as organisation, time management, project management, powerpoint, excel and Microsoft Work (which I thought I could us before I started Disney, trust me there's a lot of things on those programmes I didn't even know about) and on top of that my confidence has improved dramatically even though I was very confident before. Having to talk to very senior people everyday makes you confident very quickly. I have also developed a great understanding of SAP which many large companies use and also an understanding of invoicing, budgets and budget planning as I take care of these three areas also.

Being in a HR department is always going to be fun. In the Disney HR department there are a great variety of personalities but never a sad, miserable one. Everyone is very friendly, happy and kind. We have a lot of fun and we probably drink too much wine / eat too much cake (we like to celebrate; birthdays, leaving's, new starter's, new baby's etc.) People tend to go for social drinks after work every few weeks and sometimes a group of us will head to the cinema. Since I've been there I have never felt anything bad against me or towards me and I very comfortable to ask anyone for help, even from totally different departments. Everyone is great.

Disney do an induction for all interns but after that the whole year is down the department and what they want out of the intern and what they want to offer the intern. No formal process. This could be a benefit however as you actually feel more like a normal employee and member of the team rather than an intern with a formal placement scheme 'set-up'. When I started at Disney my desk was fully pre-pared with a cuddley toy, matching cup, stapler with my name on it and post-it notes! Little touches I know but I felt part of the team from day one.

I was disappointed that even though I worked for Learning and Development I didn't have hardly any training throughout the year. I have learnt a lot of skills but the majority I have learnt for myself. I did attend one course but this course was particular to the company, essential for my role and probably won't help me in the future. My old manager taught me alot about people management but this was her personal investment, something she taught me because she knew it would be useful for me and she cared for my development but no formal training or qualifications

Unfortunately Disney don't offer a Graduate Training programme but this is something they will be looking into next year with the aim to role it out in summer 2010. I know some interns who's managers want them to come back and Disney is still increasing in Europe on a large scale (employee wise). So there is scope for future employment and Disney would alway rather hire someone who has worked (successfully) for the company before however I'm great believer in Graduate Training programmes and Disney just fails as a graduate recruiter for this reason.

Yes, it was OK. You could get as involves, or not, as you wanted. Some Disney interns lived together others didn't. It was very varied.

Very expensive, I have spent more than I have earned this year however I do have an amazing flat to compensate and Disney do pay more than a lot of companies.

Not so good, a few bars and clubs but not my taste.However, central London is very very accessible and buses run 24hours a day so I can't complain. Plus, who wants to socailise near work when you have been there all day/week.

Yes, Disney have a great volunteer scheme and if your department permits it as most do you can even get involved in volunteer work during working hours. There is also a football league which takes place every week as the company is 2000 people in London.