Consumer Market Knowledge Internships Customer Business Development/Sales Internships Engineering Internships External Relations Internships Finance & Accounting Internships Human Resources Internships

Information & Decision Solutions Internships

IDS Intern BlogsManufacturing Internships Marketing Internships Research & Development Internships Strategic Purchasing Internships Supply Network Operations Internships  

IDS Intern Blogs

[27.8.2010]
Week 9

After what has seemed like no time at all, the week of my final presentation has dawned. This presentation was slightly different to the one at mid-term, as this one is a chance to invite all my key customers, and the other people I have been working with in order to show them my final results and show what I delivered to the business.

It was a bit nerve racking, as it really was an accumulation of nine weeks hard work, and obviously all the Interns were keen to impress. However, it was great to see how appreciative my customers were, and really emphasises that this is real work I have done over the summer.

The second half of the week was dedicated to writing up my handover documentation, ready to pass my project onto one of the new hires when my Internship finishes next week. It's quite a sad thought that someone will be taking over my desk!

[20.8.2010]
Week 8

This week has been a really interesting one as I am trying to combine preparing for my final presentation along with continuing my project work. As mentioned last week, one of my projects went live yesterday which was really exciting, and as of September 1st the existing process will no longer be used.

The final assessments are in the middle of next week, and although I have already prepared my presentation, I am having to update it every day as something new happens! This presentation is a chance to show my customers and end users what exactly I have done during my time at P&G this summer, and what value I have added.

In other news this week we have been getting a bit camera happy, as we are currently filming two videos. There is a video challenge amongst all the Interns in Western Europe, which we are entering (expect to see a shameless plug to it next week) and will be judged via voting on Facebook. The other video is just one to be shown internally, involving all the IDS Interns here in Newcastle. We have been getting some rather strange looks as we have been darting about Cobalt with a video camera, especially the one scene where I was sat on the roof of my car!

[13.8.2010]
Week 7

Hi again. This week has been an exciting one and both my projects are now firmly underway! My US GAAP project (complying with Wall Street's accountancy practices) is now with my developer and I will hopefully get the first stage of my solution back early next week ready to start testing.

My second project, (The Returns process) has made huge progress, and in the space of a week I have managed to get it developed, tested and approved for implementation. I am so excited that I actually get to see this put into practice whilst I am still here on my Internship and can leave something tangible behind.

Outside of work, this has been the week of the infamous "Intern Meal". This is a tradition (or so we are led to believe) set by Interns in previous years, involving all managers and coaches coming round to the Intern accommodation for a home cooked meal!

We choose a Mexican theme, hoping that it would be slightly easier to cook Fajhitas for 20+ people. However we did not bank on the fact that we had precisely 8 plates and 1 glass between us, so a quick dash to Tesco for emergency paper plates soon saved the day. I contributed a salad to the evening, which, if I say so myself, was definitely the "piece de resistance".

[6.8.2010]
Week 6

I can't believe how quickly time is flying. I was so eager to get started on this Internship, and already it is week 6!

After last week's mid-term presentations I received some great feedback at the start of the week which is always good to hear, and also gave me some pointers on areas I had not previously considered. It was also nice to reach the half way milestone and now I can really focus my energies on making sure I deliver the results I promised in my mid-term.

Projects wise it has been an exciting week, and one of the projects I initially intended to write a recommendation for future implementation has been approved and the developer is starting work! This was really positive news, as I have spent a lot of time working with the end users detailing precisely what the problem was, so to be able to provide them with a solution is fantastic.

In other news, Newcastle seems to have missed the memo that it's August and we are currently in the midst of yet another cold and rainy week. This does not bode well for this weekend's beach plans!

[30.7.2010]
Week 5
I am back in the office after a nice few refreshing days off, and ready to tackle my mid-term head on! The first few days of this week consist of finalising my slides and making sure they are both clear and accurate. The point of this mid-term is to show what I have been doing so far, and the value I have been adding to P&G. I want to cover my projects and explain them, but have to bear in mind that a lot of the people in the room will have no experience in this area, and that technically I am now the expert on my projects. This is particularly challenging for my US GAAP project as this is a very complex process and I need to demonstrate my full understanding, whilst giving only a high level overview of the process involved and explaining what my work on this area will achieve.
I make sure I am fully prepared for my presentation by doing a number of run-throughs with a variety of people, making sure everyone can understand what I am talking about and that I have really shown what I have achieved so far.
Mid-terms are also a great chance to catch up with the Interns from Brooklands, and it's really interesting to see what they have been working on and the different areas IDS covers. I am pleased to say that everybody's presentations went well and on the Thursday night we all head out into Jesmond for a celebratory dinner and drinks.
Friday is a quick refresher on IDS College and the chance to catch up with the College leaders, plus prepare ourselves for the second half of the internship.

Week 4
This week will be a bit shorter than usual as I am heading back down to Liverpool for my Graduation on Thursday. It will be nice to have a couple of days off, plus the chance to see all my friends again. In the meantime however, I am using my three day week to try and wrap up any outstanding issues with my two projects and get any questions answered in preparation for my mid-term assessment next week.
A few of my key contacts have been away for the past week, so I have got plenty to be getting on with and plenty more meetings to schedule!Sadly, as I set off for Liverpool on Wednesday evening, I miss out on this week's social event: The Curry Club. Gutted!

[23.7.2010]
Week 3
By the time week three rolls around, I am becoming a dab hand at Outlook and I have easily fallen into the swing of things here at P&G.
I am now getting further into my projects and started to understand more about them. I will be looking at the Returns Cost Centre Process (How goods are returned into stock) and looking at ways to make it more efficient, hopefully making a real dollar impact on the running of the business. I will also be looking at the business processes and systems which allow P&G to more efficiently comply with Wall Street's accounting practices. I find this a really interesting topic as it's a hugely important area for the business, and it is something completely new to me.
This week also saw my first video meeting. The IDS community is really close knit, up and down the country and quarterly the entire workforce come together via video link to share their experiences and knowledge and to reinforce the team spirit.
This Internship is a real job with real responsibilities, and I am keen to perform as I can see there is a measurable amount of success. I know these projects need doing, and if I wasn't here, then another employee would be doing this work. For this reason I am really motivated to try my best as I really want to leave my mark on the business and I want to ensure that this work is completed to the best of my ability.

Week 2
The start of a much anticipated week two began with an introduction to what would be my saviour: Outlook Calender. I have soon come to realise that meetings are key in P&G, and my success is very much helped by the network of people I build around me. Everyone is very keen to share and impart their knowledge, and hence this results in a lot of meetings!
We all got set up with our weapons of choice, in my case; a laptop, a phone and what has easily become my new best friend; the "to do list" pad. Plus one particularly helpful soul introduced the other Interns and me to the acronym database, which to put it in context is the translation dictionary to the language of P&G!
Before I started my Internship, I had read countless times that P&G Interns do real work, so I don't know why I was so surprised to find out that it's true! The projects I will spend this summer working on are both about improving existing processes through proposing and analyzing solutions and then deciding how feasible they are. Both projects rely on a combination of technology and business and so to fully understand the process I need to get a grasp on both of these subjects! Having come from a marketing background, I'm quite excited to see how I fare in an entirely new subject area.
There are many parts of the IDS function, so this week as part of my onboarding I had meetings with managers from each area of IDS in order to try and gain an insight into the function and how all the different areas work well together.

Week 1
A three year degree in Marketing, a chance meeting with a current IDS P&G'er at the IMB UBC event, plus a desire to try something a bit different has seen me embarking on a 10 week Internship within the IDS function up in Newcastle.
Week one is a week-long training and induction session, mixed with plenty of social activities, countless team building games, and much more food than one person could ever hope for. All in all, a brilliant time. We had two days of Corporate College which introduced us to P&G as a company, plus gave us all the chance to meet a plethora of people from the vast array of functions that P&G seems to have. To all the other Interns, IDS was seen as somewhat elusive and nobody was entirely sure what the scope of the function was, a view which before I applied for the job, I also shared.
This was followed by three days of IDS specific college which provided a much anticipated insight of what was to come over the following 9 weeks, a store visit with the CBD (Consumer based decision) guys and the distribution of our work plans-Ahhhh!!
With the week drawing to an end, three of the Interns stayed down in Surrey, whilst the rest of us journeyed up to Newcastle very eager to put our new found knowledge into action!