Maria Meriacre

Country of origin: Portugal

Placement: Intel

Graduate jobs have become very competitive in the last few years, thus, it is very important to have as much work experience as possible when applying for one. Understanding this I decided to take a placement year to get a real feeling for the corporate world, which will put me in a more advantageous position when I graduate.

Whilst on placement I was given the responsibility to manage the supply of several of our products within Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). This role included tactical forecasting through detailed analysis of various influencing factors. The purpose of this was to ensure there was adequate supply available for our customers within the required timelines. I was also perceived as the product expert so dealt with a lot of customer queries/escalations on products and orders placed. Part of my time was also spent analysing revenue and end customer data in order to identify potential opportunities for company growth. On top of this I was also responsible for presenting revenue tracking and products roadmap to key company stakeholders on a regular basis.

I can say my placement was the greatest learning experience I have had, both from a professional and personal point of view. I had the privilege of learning about a company’s business in detail and working with a great team. As in every organisation there were obviously more stressful situations, however, the work atmosphere at Intel is very relaxed which is always a must. Also, apart from the large intern community there were a lot of recently hired graduates with whom I interacted, making both time at work and my free time more fun.

I was amazed by the amount of responsibility I was given and how other senior stakeholders trusted my work, this definitely made me believe a lot more in my own ability, I felt confident and motivated to push myself to do more on top of my key tasks. While being an intern I was not seen as someone with a lack of experience, but rather as a potential source of new and more creative ideas.  

I found the OWT250 module in 2nd year to be very helpful as it gave me more insight into what to actually expect from my year in industry. Through this course I got to learn how to deal with challenges I could face getting along with colleagues and ethical issues, which proved very useful when I came across these sort of problems in the workplace. 

Being organized and learning how to prioritize are some of the most important skills I have gained on placement. This is very helpful for my last year of university as it is crucial to manage time between studies and job applications. And the same applies to when I start a graduate job. During my year at Intel I worked with many different stakeholders, some of them were based in the US, others in China, Russia, etc. From this I learnt how to communicate effectively with people from different cultural backgrounds and I now feel more confident about presenting to different audiences. Despite the fact that I am not sure about the career path I want to follow, these are skills which are valuable in any work position.