Marketing Intern Review

It was a tough challenge but I thoroughly enjoyed it and learnt a huge amount during my time at Nestle. The people were all really supportive and it was an amazing experience to be working on teams responsible for some of the most well known products in the UK and globally.

Generally, everyone has been extremely supportive and valued my work and contibutions to the company. In some situations it was difficult to arrange meetings with more senior members as other work they had would be more important to them, however this would be the case in any managerial-run organisation and I can completely understand why they would have to prioritise their workloads.

I had weekly meetings with my manager, as well as sitting within a team of 6 which included my manager. I constantly had support around me, my manager was always quick to respond and ready to help which was a great help throughout the whole process.

The workload varied across the time period but generally it has been a great balance. At times it was extremely busy and I chose to work late to get work done to a standard I felt comfortable with, however there was never any pressure to work overtime, and on other occassions when I was waiting back on information from people then the work load slowed and allowed the occassional slightly more relaxed working day in contrast, however at all times there has been enough work to do to keep me occupied.

I was given full responsibility for a project and requested to provide recommendations to the company to improve - should these recommendations be taken into play they will have a big effect on the way a certain aspect of the business in the department is run. I have already seen some of the effects coming into place, with very positive feedback from senior leaders who are keen to work on my recommendations and get a plan put into place.

I have learnt a huge amount about the industry and how FMCG works from the inside - I feel I have a strong understanding of the business principles and how some of the different brands have been built and maintained. The knowledge I have learned will be extremely benefitial for my final year of my course; I am studying Marketing and I feel like working in the industry puts all previous learning into perspective and has provided me with a platform above my peers in developing on that knowledge next year.

There is a hard-working atmosphere in the office, however people are happy to chat and the layout is such that people will stop by at the desks to speak to you and ask how things are going. Meetings can take place in formal meeting rooms or in more relaxed coffee areas which helps to create a really friendly, relaxed atmosphere. There are weekly discussions as a whole department regarding whats been happening during that week, plus in my time here we have had a department lunch, team lunches and charity events.

Since I have been here the organisation has been fantastic, my brief was well set up and I've had clear guidelines from my manager throughout, I cannot fault the process at all. However, prior to arriving I had a real lack of information and found it difficult to contact anyone within the business although this is something which will be improved for next year.

I feel we were very highly valued and invested in; we received a comprehensive training session on arrival to introduce ourselves to the company, policies and the department we were working in. I already study Marketing so felt I was quite well educated in what this was, but we had a really useful marketing introduction on arrival so it would have been extremely benfitial to non-marketing students to bring everyone up to the same level. We also had training in head office and got to visit external agencies to find out more about what they do.

Speaking with many of the grads gave me quite a positive view of the company; many of the senior team began as graduates so it is great to see how you can build your way up the company. I think the internship definitely would increase your chances of getting a graduate role within the company as they have invested heavily in you for a 10 week period and you would already have knowledge of the company and industry above a direct entrant to the grad scheme. You also get fast-tracked past the application process and through to doing a final presentation; which, coupled together with a review of your progress over the 10 weeks will decide whether or not you will be succesful.

Yes, there was a Facebook group set up prior to joining which allowed us to find other people working at Nestle and arrange to meet up/live together. There are only a small number of interns at the office I am at, however there are many grads and year placement students who have been really friendly too and have organised get-togethers and leaving parties to help build up bigger friendship groups at work.

Cost of living is relatively cheap in York; I stayed in university residences very near to the offices and just outside the centre of the city, however there is a huge range of prices and places to live that range from cheap and basic up to some really lovely accomodation but with a slightly higher price tag. Food and drinks are reasonably priced too, often with offers on for certain nights of the week however weekends tend to be a lot more expensive to eat out.

Good; although the change from university hours into working hours was a bit of a shock to the system and the work is challenging and tiring so many of us didn't feel up to going out for the first few weeks until we got settled into the routine! There are lots of lovely bars in York though and expecially on a weekend the city is quite busy, it seems more of an older place to go out compared with university and the lack of students but i'm sure it would be different during term times.

Personally I wasn't aware of many, or they are planned for after I have left, but I know other interns have been involved with sports.