corporate marketing intern Review

My role was enjoyable and atmosphere of the office i worked was one that was flexible and comforrtable to work within.

My team took me on and treated me more as a member of the team rather than just an intern. They invested in including me in training courses, even though they knew id be with them for a limited time.

A mentoring scheme is run within the company so i was able to have one-to-ones with my mentor throughout the year. I also had regular one to ones with my manager, which enabled me to come to them whenever in need of help / guidance. Only issue was at times when my team / manager was out on the road due to the nature of their jobs.

It varied from week to week - sometimes work was quiet and was a case of making myself look busy, other times it was hectic and kept me rushing about. All in all there weren't times when felt over or under worked.

After a few weeks of establishing trust with my team they were keen to make most of my abilties, and in turn help me get the most out of my placement. Therefore a number of items were designated as my responsiblity, and they actively looked for new areas for me to being involved in which included a high importace consolidation project outside of england.

My general professionalism in my work has increased dramatically, ability to time keep and meet deadlines also has been a major improvement. These ought to prove to be very useful when it comes to completing final year at university. Also professionalism ought to be a major skill when it comes to applying for jobs following graduation from university, so skills learnt this year will prove to be very useful.

The office i worked within was very flexible - with little designated desks. its also takes this approach by having 'break out' areas dotted across the site allowing you to go there for a 5 min tea break now and then. this was matched by the atmosphere which was very easy to get used to and welcoming - something i noticed within my first week of being there. At the same time when worked needed to be done it was still possible to do so - and areas such as quiet rooms aided this from time to time.

It was alright - although sometimes lacked knowing who to go to when you had questions around the scheme during the year. Also at the start they had no record of me being down to arrive the day id been told to, so that didnt help settle in. Eventually this was resolved. The scheme offers good opportunites but at same time could do with some improvements - invest in the interns more through training courses, have more willing HR support, organise more group intern days of training / outside speakers etc - we only had one all year.

I dont think HP invests in its interns enough. The training courses it gives mainly are online courses that input little value to the candidate. Instead it relies on the students team to put them on training courses, and in the current climate of cost cutting this rarely happens. If they want to get the best out of their placement students, and hope to have them return as well-equipped grad students I think they need to run more courses such as presentation skills etc and look to develop the students skill set more - maybe put a minimum amount of courses each students needs to attend over the course of the year.

There are definitely opportunities there - grad scheme, contacts within the business that may contact when job opportunities arrive. Its a good brand to work for, and can be a good way to build your career. however its still questionable how much the company invests into its grad scheme students / employees, and this needs to be resolved to make it a really attractive employer to work for.

definitely as there was such a large number of students based at my site - 50+. HP encourages you to build a committee that covers areas such as socials / charity work / organising an end of year ball. I met people from all over the country, from lots of different uni's and will definitely keep in contact with some of them. HP also does well with encouraging students to live in Reading Uni Halls for the first month allowingyou to get to know people, and then organise living in a house together. So I lived with 4 other placement students and has been a great setup. Managers are also aware to the fact this year is important socially as well, and assuming you get the right balance of social and work, are willing to allow you to get involved with the social life as much as possible.

Its not far from london, so wasnt as pricey as living in london but at the same time its quite expensive. The salary we were on is pretty standard - not particularly small, but nothing amazing either. however it was possible to live off it okay in a decent house, and allowed for you to get involved in social side of things outside of work. however any dream of getting out the overdraft and saving up fair bit of money ahead of university next year is a lot harder than expected!

Reading itself isn't the best, but I've been to worse places! Plenty of bars in the centre, and few places to end the night at. The fact that i can look back on some awesome nights though id argue is more because of the people i was with rather than the places we were at. There's also the option of going into london as its easy to get to, however these trips are few and far between due to the costs you rack up!

Yes Sport & Social run a few clubs such as the golf club which i know a few students got involved in. Also the site had facilities such as a football pitch which we made a lot of use of - until budget got cut so that it wasnt maintained and is no longer playable! Employee engagement events such as free screenings at local cinemas of certain HP sponsored films also arose over the course of the year which were good to get involved in. A 'football' email distribution list was also setup so those interested in playing regularly could easily organise where and when. Discounts available from Sport and Social also offered opportunities to do things such as cheaper cinema tickets.