Programmes and Communications Intern Review

Based in London, I was within the UKIMEA (UK, Ireland, Middle East & Africa) Office of the Managing Director team. This placement offered an exceptionally broad range of responsibilities, including but not limited to, internal culture programme management, Employee Resource Group (ERG) support, stakeholder communications, and the operational management of HPE's sponsorship partnership with Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. The breadth of this experience, working across internal and external audiences, operational and creative functions, and various stakeholder levels, created a rich environment for professional development.

Yes, On one side, I was involved in internal culture programme management and supporting Employee Resource Groups, which required building relationships across the organisation and thinking carefully about how communications land with different audiences. On the other side, I had operational responsibility for HPE's sponsorship partnership with Tottenham Hotspur — managing an external, high-profile relationship that came with its own stakeholder expectations and deadlines.

Yes, across both technical and interpersonal areas. On the technical side, I developed real hands-on proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite — producing content actually deployed across HPE's UK and Ireland offices — and became fluent in a range of operational tools including SAP Concur, Smartsheet, and HPE's internal communications platform. Learning to work within corporate content approval and brand compliance processes was also a significant step beyond anything academic study had prepared me for.
Interpersonally, my stakeholder communication and workload management improved considerably across the year. I was regularly engaging with people at very different seniority levels and learned to adapt my approach accordingly. The most honest reflection, though, is that I grew from a largely receptive mindset into someone more willing to contribute ideas and challenge ways of working — and I think that shift was probably the most valuable development of all.

Constant support was available. I felt like I could reach out at anytime to my direct managers and as for everyone else, they were sure to constantly be an open door.

HPE takes pride on their company culture. They are consistently thinking about employee well being and providing opportunities for not just early careers, but the entire company to take initiatives to improve the culture. Any ideas were backed within reason ad you were rarely just 'shut down'

At times, I felt that my work was not really important, and my skills were relatively underused, but the positive about having such a broad role, was nothing was ever the same, so there were definitely times I felt very useful and proud of my work. This placement also helped guide me to what I want to do i the future.

Yes