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I carried out my year in industry as a Commercial Sales intern at VMware. This company is one of the leading brands in the technology industry and specialises in computing and virtualisation. Technology isn’t something I am particularly passionate about but having been surrounded by family with careers in Sales and having some experience myself in this field, it felt right to apply for a role like this. The reason I decided to work in this industry is because in sales, that’s where you can make the most money! VMware was one of many tech companies I applied for but I am so happy I ended up there.

I was very apprehensive about starting the internship considering I had no experience working for a corporate company, let alone in IT. Having said this, I can honestly say it was one of the best years of my life. I was able to move to London and meet so many new people which has opened up so many opportunities for me and my future career which I am incredibly grateful for.

From the beginning I was never made to feel like anything other than part of the team. Everyone was unbelievably welcoming so I got stuck in straight away. I was able to go along to customer and partner meetings with the Account Managers where I was able to widen my network and on occasion meet CEO’s. I took part in many training programs such as ‘Big Speeches’ Training which focused on speaking publicly and presenting to an audience. I therefore was more confident presenting reports from sales intelligence to managers and account reps. I worked very closely with my managers, helping them organise events and meetings on various different topics. I regularly analysed sales data, identifying trends and reported this back to the team.

As a result of my enthusiastic attitude and approach to work, I received an award and bonus from my managers which I was extremely happy with! They also extended my contract from 12 months to 14 months so I could further help the team and mentor the new interns to ensure they knew what they were doing.

All in all, I cannot recommend an internship enough. As COVID-19 took away my 2nd year of University, being able to move to London and become exposed to so many new and exciting opportunities has without doubt made my university experience worth it. Now that I have real life experience and many new connections, being able to find a job when I graduate will be much easier. Above all this, I have made some lifelong friends and memories that I will never forget.

So, my advice would be…apply for an internship, you won’t regret it! And go out of your comfort zone!