Trade Marketing Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Microsoft. There was never a dull day, and plenty of exciting opportunities to get involved in through my role, outside my role and outside work.

Put it this way. If I hadn't been there for the year, my team would have had to hire someone else to work on all the projects I was involved in. Everyone in my team and more broadly in my business group recognised this, and I felt like a valued member of the organisation.

Throughout the year I had a variety of different managers and mentors. My hiring managers both left shortly into my placement, but they have both kept in touch with me to find out how I am getting on. My manager for the rest of my placement was extremely supportive, and it was her first time managing someone so we were both learning from our relationship. In addition, I reached out to two extra mentors who have helped me plan my post-university career. They have helped me personally and professionally develop and have been an excellent resource, as well as good mates.

I lost track of the number of days I ate lunch at my desk because I had so much going on. On one occasion, in preparation for an event the following day, I was at the office until 2am. What's great about Microsoft is that not only do they recognise this outstanding commitment and reward it, they also make sure you get your time back by letting you come in late or leave early to make up for the extra hours you worked. At times I felt overwhelmed by the amount of work I was doing, but my manager and mentors were always there to support me.

I was given real jobs to do and real projects to work on that had real business impact. For one campaign I worked on, I was given a budget of $100,000 to spend with a team of interns. We executed the campaign and had to report on our return on investment, and we were held accountable for the businesses money. This was unlike any other experience I have ever had, and just goes to show how much Microsoft trusts their interns.

My placement year was by far the most valuable year of my degree. I learnt a lot about my strengths and weaknesses, and thanks to Microsoft's structured Personal Development Programme I was able to plan my personal development over the year. I developed skills that greatly helped me finish my degree in style, but I was also able to apply some context to everything I had learnt in my first two years of study.

There was a great atmosphere in the office. Everyone was extremely lively, friendly, even eccentric at times, and I had a lot of fun with my colleagues. The only trouble with a multinational corporation like Microsoft is there are always budget cuts and therefore redundancies being made. These were the only difficult times, as I made friends with everyone on my floor so it was difficult to see them leave.

The internship programme is fantastically well organised and the student careers team were outstanding. Very friendly, encouraging and motivational, and they put on a lot of fun events for us which brought the whole intern community together.

As previously mentioned, I had a manager and two mentors this year who all invested their time and energy in me. On top of this, I was part of the Personal Development Programme which allowed me to develop my skills.

I will definitely be applying for Microsoft's graduate scheme.

I worked in London for a year with 40 other interns. Need I say more?

London is expensive, but fortunately I was able to live at home. Financially I managed to get by, but it was a struggle. London nightlife prices didn't help, but if anything I learnt how to manage my money a bit better!

Mad. Absolutely mad.

I played in the Microsoft EMEA football tournament, and played tennis every week with 3 full time employees, before trips to the pub.