Product Management Review

I really enjoyed my time working in Product Management at Hewlett Packard. I have made friends across the globe, had opportunities to travel internationally and learnt skills for life! I really appreciate the time I have spent at HP and their investment in me as a young person.

I worked in a great team in the UK where I was made to feel valued and part of a family. Likewise my team extends across the globe, and even working across such long distances, I have always felt appreciated and the efforts I put in are always recognized and rewarded. I have collected many recognition points during my time here which can be exchanged for prizes or put towards the costs of a trip. This is a great way to keep people motivated and feel valued, it also means that however small or big a task your efforts are not gone unnoticed.

I received great help and support from my manager and colleagues throughout my 13month internship. I received regular 1:1 meetings with my direct manager on a bi-weekly basis, as well as a half year review to reflect on my yearly objectives, and a chance to set new goals for the remainder of the year. I always take away action items from these meetings, to better improve my personal character and professional business acumen. I find this really valuable as it gives me a chance to understand how my current skillset can be developed further to be of optimal advantage in the workplace.

As the course of my internship progressed, I was exposed to more projects and consequently acquired more responsibilities. This meant my day to day activities were varied and often had a balance of creativity, strategy and business value in mind. I've learnt to manage the peaks and troughs in workload which is a skill that I have carried through from University.

The responsibility I have at HP is great, from day one I was trusted with numerous tasks to help develop my role, place within the team and increase business revenue. I often volunteered to help out on extra events and projects to get more experience and expose myself to different areas of the business unit. I would often be encouraged to develop projects on my own and ask for help when required. This helped with my independent thinking in a business environment and ensured I made appropriate use of expert knowledge and time when needed.

HP have a scheme called HP University, where there is access to numerous e-books, courses, videos and webcasts to extend your knowledge. This is helpful to my University degree as it helps underpin the new skills I have learned in the workplace and be able to cross reference with business examples. I have been exposed to real-life scenarios that sometimes are hard to understand at University from a textbook or in lectures until you see them pan out in reality. This has helped enormously in my critical ability to analyze situations and not always take them at face-value, which I know will definitely help in my final year at degree level, that there is always more to a situation than what first meets the eye. Being able to understand the layers of thinking within a situation will be invaluable in the coming years.

General atmosphere was great, there is a varied mix of employees at the site I was at. I interacted well with the other interns and we made an effort to do things outside of work time too. The site embraces the value of interns so this helps with the overall atmosphere.

Really well set up. My team are in their 10th year of having interns and so have established a great development plan for the recruitment of interns and while they are here to maximize the most of their time, skills and ability. Eventhough HR is mainly based abroad the transition and communication between HR, my team and candidates is seamless.

The company and the firm invested a lot of money in developing me as an individual and I am entirely grateful. I have had the opportunity to be involved in onsite events, my mentor has exposed me to the world of sales and invited me to customer meetings with large corporates to see how that side of the company works, and I was invited to fly to Phoenix with my team to the annual Marketing employee meeting. Even on a day to day basis my manager and co workers are always looking for opportunities for my involvement in projects that can develop my skillset.

Future employment prospects are great within HP if you perform well and exceed expectations on your internship. There is a great graduate scheme in operation and opportunities to carry on working part-time alongside the final year at University.

Yes great social scene. HP invest lots of money, time and effort in ensuring a great employee culture, and hold many staff events, parties, and charity events to keep everyone social. The interns at my sit even set up a site Battle of the Bands to raise money for Comic Relief this year, which was a great way to raise cash and hold a social event for the rest of the site.

I was able to live at home and travel to work, so this isn't massively applicable. However other interns have told me that the cost of living is reasonable for a city and nightlife in Bristol is great.

Bristol is awesome for nights out, caters for a wide variety of tastes in music and food.

Yes, there are many sports teams available and the gym is free for HP employees which is great to keep fit outside of work!