Sales Development Analyst Review

I have thoroughly enjoyed my placement, its a great company for work for and even as an intern you are treated the same as any other employee. There are around 50 other interns based in the same office, which makes the experience even better as they are all in the same position as you.

I felt very valued by my colleagues, which in my role in particular is important. My team are not based in the office so a lot of my communication with them has been virtual. Despite this I found it relatively easy to integrate myself into the team and from there was entrusted with my own projects and responsibilities.

I had 1:1 meetings with my on-the-job coach every week, we worked together pretty much everyday so these meetings were good to talk in a more formal setting. He was an intern himself a few years ago and was very encouraging and supportive, I met with my manager once a month as he travels a lot so is a good way for us to catch up and discuss my development in the role. Both were very encouraging of me wanting to get involved in different projects.

Once I got use to my core role, it took up less and less of my time, and with my role being largely project based in a way there are days when I can be quite quiet and others where I am very busy. But there is never a quiet period of more than a few days.

You are given the same responsibility as any employee. You are expected to be able to do things without constantly asking for approval, but support is always available if needed. If I was given a project it was up to me to own and delegate as appropriate, something that was sometimes challenging but ultimately beneficial.

The skills I learned from my placement are more applicable to a working environment than what I studied at university, however my studies did help to give me a baseline. One thing I would recommend is to brush up on you excel skills as there is a need to have this in most jobs.

No one has an office so its a very open environment. There is a smart casual dress code, with casual Fridays.

The integration into the placement is great there is an open day before you start to give you a brief introduction and allow you to meet the other new interns. The program is a 13 month internship, with the first month a handover month where you learn the job from the previous intern, which is extremely beneficial. Overall I think the internship is set up very well.

In the first month there are a lot of training's to help you understand the company and its history as well as tool training's if needed for your job. Throughout the year there are a variety of training classes that are offered and I recommend attending as many as you can, to get the most you can out of your internship.

It is a great company to work for and they use the internship program as a pipeline for hiring back graduates. They tend to hire a few people as graduates each year mainly in Finance and Operations. Throughout the internship you are given opportunities to get involved in things that interest you and allow you to be exposed in different areas of the business, something I would recommend doing if you want to be hired back, it is a great company to work for. There are a lot of former interns who work for the company, and others have been working there for over 20 years.

At the start of the year during handover everyone goes out a lot but this starts to dwindle naturally as the year goes on. People then tend to go out with their teams and in the friendship groups they form. There is an intern social committee and this year there has been; bar crawls, pub golf, trip to Newquay, trip to somerset and Prague.

Rent is very cheap compared to some places, if you live in or near Old Town its between £200-£350pcm i'd say, if you live in New Town is about £170-£300pcm but you would need a car really to get to work. Going out in Old Town is better but more expensive than New Town but both are good. There is 3 cinemas in Swindon and a ton of really nice restaurants.

Swindon is not known for its nightlife, there was a nightclub but it shut down this year. However there are a lot of bars and pubs which are very nice. This is when you really find value in the other 50 interns as if you have a good group of people doesn't matter where you go.

Among the interns there are 4 committees to get involved in; Connections, Charity, Publishing and Sports & Social. There is also sporting teams such as netball and football.