Marketing Communications Intern Review

The first 6 months of my internship I thoroughly enjoyed due to being exposed to different tools that I had never used before such as Marketo, Photoshop etc. Also, nobody within the organisation treated me as an intern but as their colleague - even though I was only there for a year. I got to feel what a real business was like and wasn't just exposed to what my job role included, I also did a variety of other things which was really fun.

I felt valued by my colleagues who I worked with - as I mentioned before, I didn't get treated like an intern. One of my roles was to update the new website that went live and the product managers and other colleagues would come to me if they needed things changing/updating. I also got a chance to create some content of my own.

On a weekly basis, I would send a project tracker to my manager who would see what I had been doing, what I had on my plate for the following week etc (she wasn't based on site). She would help me if I went to her and I could always give her a ring if I needed anything. If she didn't know things, she would point me in the right direction.

At first, I was really busy as I was creating campaigns/emailers and also working on the website. It died down a little towards the end but I still had things to be getting on with. There was never a point where I would be sitting around twiddling my thumbs - I just had to speak to my manager if it was coming to that point so I could be given my next task(s).

I was given a lot of responsibility during my placement. Making amendments to the website without supervision, creating some content for the website, I was creating the campaigns/emailers that were being sent out to customers.

I developed a lot of new skills during my placement such as HTML, creating campaigns, using different software etc and they will all be very useful in my degree and once I have graduated. Not only skills such as those mentioned above, generally working for a big corporation has developed me as a person. I feel I am more organised, I was able to gain insight into a real business, I know what is expected of me in the real world etc.

Unfortunately, the site I was working on experienced a huge fire just before I started working there and so I went from a large office into a small portakabin. Although this wasn't an ideal situation, the atmosphere in the cabin was very good. I was sat with product managers and so they were very busy but it didn't feel very uptight. People generally seemed quite relaxed and would have a laugh every now and then. I enjoyed my time in the portakabin.

The placement wasn't organised in a sense they knew what tasks I'd have on what week but I was sat down and asked what sort of things I would like to do. We would then take it by a weekly basis of what I was going to do or however long the task would take me,

I wasn't really given any training as such, I wasn't really told how I could be organised etc, this all came from figuring it out myself.

GE are a huge corporate organisation with various companies within it and so future employment prospects within the company are quite appealing - there are a range of jobs I could go into.

There was a very good social scene amongst the other interns/graduates. We would go out outside of work quite frequently and have made many friends.

I worked in a small village in Leicester but luckily, I lived at home during the placement and so I only had socialising costs. You would have to go into the town centre which isn't very expensive but it isn't cheap either. Cost of living in Leicester City Centre is nowehre near prices you would pay in London - a decent sized flat in Leicester City Centre is about £500-£600 p/m.

As mentioned before, the area I worked in is a small village and so not a lot to do there but there is a pub down the road which was good. However, it's not likely that an intern would get a flat in the village - most likely in Leicester City Centre. The nightlife is pretty good, it can get quite busy. There is also a range of pubs/clubs/bars that you could go to.

As I wasn't looking for anything, I'm not too sure on what's available right now but I know that there is sports clubs such as football, swimming etc you can get involved in - I think it just depends on what you are looking for.