On tour with the HPE interns - Meet the UK crew

[UKIMEA_Insights]

On tour with the HPE interns - meet the UK crew

With interns scattered across the UK, we took a tour to catch up with them and find out about their experiences with the intern programme. 

We have almost 50 interns working across four offices in the UK, all taking part in 13-month-long placement across a wide variety of teams and business units.

Like a fresh, blank sheet of paper, each intern starts at HPE with over a year of opportunities waiting for them to experience alongside the day job, with a wide variety to broaden their horizons and enhance their development.

Manchester Interns	Winnersh Interns
Bristol Interns	London Interns

Reaching outside the office walls

Despite being spread across four office locations, our interns remain a tight-knit community. Roles may vary by location – with a stronger focus on sales in Manchester and engineering in Bristol – but the supportive intern culture and diverse opportunities are consistent throughout all offices.

As an intern at HPE, you’re not just part of a vibrant intern community, you’re also an essential member of your site and team communities, both of which are there to support and engage with you throughout your journey, adding essential colour to the growing intern image. Our recognition system ensures that your hard work is acknowledged, not only within your team, but also across your site and even globally.

Each UK HPE office – Winnersh, Manchester, London and Bristol – embraces its own unique and dynamic culture, yet are all committed to celebrating key occasions and cultural events like Team Member Appreciation Day and We Are HPE Day. These moments of recognition are an important element, adding a little sparkle to the developing intern picture.

By immersing yourself in both your intern and local communities, you’ll gain invaluable experiences, connections and skills that extend well beyond your primary role.

Exploring early careers – beyond the day job

As an HPE intern, you’ll have access to a range of additional opportunities, including the chance to join an Early Careers Committee (ECC), where dedicated resources are committed to supporting your development, growth and success.

As well as the committees, you’ll also benefit from additional training, plus, you may even get involved in recruitment by assisting your team with finding your successor.

Every opportunity develops new skills, builds connections and makes a meaningful impact beyond your primary day-to-day role, allowing you to discover new talents and add different dimensions to the emerging final intern picture.

The ECCs

Joining an Early Careers Committee gives you the opportunity to take on various responsibilities, including charity work, social and networking activities, and marketing initiatives.

These ECCs receive a budget each financial quarter to fund impactful events and initiatives.

The Charity Committee coordinates activities like sponsored walks, bake-offs, volunteering days and other fundraising events.

The Social & Networking Committee could organise events such as run clubs, Secret Santa exchanges, networking sessions and coffee mornings.

The Marketing Committee may take on projects like creating content for an intern website, producing videos and promoting intern activities to the wider business.

Joining a committee not only allows you to make a difference, but also helps you develop valuable skills and create connections within the company, adding to your intern picture with bold discoveries and exciting achievements.

Growing a healthy network

HPE internships provide incredible networking opportunities, not just with other interns, but with colleagues across the business, building relationships and a strong community within teams, across locations and amongst the intern programmes.

Development days

Every quarter, interns across the UK come together for a development day, dedicated to upskilling, with a hint of networking. These give the opportunity to improve skills like public speaking and portfolio building whilst meeting teams from across the business and networking with other interns.

Mentorship programme

Each intern is assigned a mentor who supports their journey through the year with meetings and encouragement. Mentors can help further your network into other areas you are interested in, connect you with new people, or offer advice from their own experience.

Building broad networks allows you to layer that intern picture with new knowledge, great conversations and collaborative work, adding depth and a detailed insight to the company and the people who create its success.

A culture of development

Interns are valuable team members, taking ownership of projects that have a real impact within the business. They are also offered opportunities outside of the technical workspace, allowing them to develop as many new skills as possible.

From business trips to Barcelona and Vienna to managing the hospitality suite at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, interns are given amazing opportunities within an impactful job role.

Work experience weeks

Interns are provided with further responsibilities to encourage the next potential generation of IT experts, managing and supporting work experience students, attending careers fairs and even visiting schools to talk about their internship and the opportunities it has provided.

Courses

More structured development programmes include a potential project management course, as well as sales readiness, providing training in communication, presentation, listening skills and essential sales techniques.

Development opportunities are the final element that brings that intern picture to life, filling the blank spaces with opportunities to find out what excites you and which areas you want to pursue even further.

Intern Insights

We asked our current interns to offer some advice to potential future interns, and the themes across all offices were the same – be yourself, be confident and do your research!

“Make sure your personality comes across in your interview, because at the end of the day, they’re hiring you, so they want to see what you’re all about.” – Ella, Sales Support intern, Manchester

“You don’t need to be an absolute technical whizz and know everything about computer science, just know your fundamentals and that should get you pretty far.” – Rumaisa, Software Engineer intern, Bristol

Digital opportunities and information

If you’re interested in finding out more about our early careers, you can test drive a tech career with one of our virtual experiences.

Join our talent community to keep informed of any new positions available, and find out more about our internships alongside apprenticeships and graduate roles on our early careers page.