Strategic Procurement Analyst Review

A fantastic company with a culture focused around employee development. A 60-strong intern community lends to a buzzing atmosphere and a number of after-work activities.

The intern scheme is fast becoming a valuable tool for recruiting young professionals and training them up to successfully return as graduates. For this reason, HP are investing more and more in the development of this scheme. Colleagues are now realising the benefit of the program and fully support those on it. That said, having a positive attitude and producing good work is the key to being truly valued on your internship. However, Procurement is traditionally an undervalued industry and often considered a hindrance by the stakeholders you support.

Management provide a consistent level of support throughout the internship and the 'HP University' provides tools to train with whenever you have downtime. However, management rarely push yourself to be out of your comfort zone and it is very much your own responsibility to get involved as much as you can. There is certainly a degree of mollycoddling in the style of management employed by our superiors.

The first 4 months were very light and more training focussed. However, throughout the year my workload increased substantially to a point where I was all day, every day.

The year started slowly with admin & research work as I built up the trust of my team. I was then able to assist and co-lead projects and prove my ability to lead. Due to internal reshuffling, I temporarily assumed a full-time Procurement role which amounted to a considerable amount of responsibility as the main point of contact for our stakeholders. From here, I was able to lead several end-to-end projects which affected the bottom line of the company.

I believe my understanding of the corporate world will drastically improve my degree studies as I fully understand the links between certain areas. A lot of what I have learned in my studies to date has not been used in my day-to-day work so I am not sure on how much overlap there will be moving forward.

The atmosphere is light-hearted and friendly. Your colleagues and managers will always have time spare to lend you a hand and show you how to do things. Attendance is rarely very high so it is not quite as buzzing as other offices. There is very little out-of-work activities leading to low team cohesion.

As a HP intern, the scheme is established and appreciated. The intern committee ensures there is always activities lined up. However, as a Procurment intern there is not a dedicated scheme and you are thrown together with the graduates. This is great for networking and getting support but their roles and objectives differ greatly from ours, leading to little synergy,

HP has a very developed training and development program focused around the HP University and Grow@HP which has thousands of courses available to develop your soft skills, specific department knowledge or general computer/program abilities. The intern committee arrange calls with experts and workshops. However, there is little financial backing to your development and paid-courses are often reserved for graduates. There are few qualifications to gain during the year, In procurement, they operated a mock-RFP which simulated a key procurement function but in the comfort of an internal setting.

Prospects at HP early on during your career are appealing due to the focus on personal development. There is also a lot of sideways movement available across the company which means you should be able to find a career path that suits you. If you network throughout your year and show a great work ethic then you should find yourself in a position to get on a grad scheme at the end of the year.

The intern committee ensured there were regular events scheduled throughout the year. Socials take place in Reading which doesn't have the greatest night life but the sheer number of clubs and Reading University students should balance this out. There is a substantial amount of volunteering to get involved in. Events typically die down over the winter period but pick back up again in Spring.

Interns are typically based in Reading. Average rent is about £320-£350 a month (plus bills). Average cost of a pint £3 - £3.50 Most interns pay around £330 mark for rent - this is for a standard university house of about 5 people

Night life occurs in Reading. Some nights are terrible, some are brilliant. It depends on what you look for in a night out. You should be able to get into the Reading Student Union which is local, cheap and was voted Best Student Union Night in the country.

There is an intern football team and 5 a side football on Mondays. There is a lot of things to get involved in around Reading but very few of these are linked to the company.