Coca-Cola Enterprises is a carbonated soft drink manufacturer that is sold worldwide and is a household name. Katie Wilson worked as a marketing assistant within different departments of the UK branch.

The internship was for three weeks in July 2013 and Katie was supported by the University’s UK Professional Bursary, without which she would not have been able to undertake this internship.

During her internship Katie undertook a variety of roles which included: analysing Coca-Cola sales to ASDA, creating short-term marketing plans for Coke Zero, conducting market research, assisting in the ‘Share a Coke’ experiential tour which visited Tesco stores to create personalised Coke bottles and visited Coca-Cola retailers as a sales representative to ensure that all products were fully stocked and displayed correctly.

Katie enjoyed working in a global organisation and the different people that she met throughout her internship as a result. She was pleasantly surprised at how diverse the work can be working in a marketing department. Katie was also invited to a launch event for a new Coca-Cola product which was a fun and exciting evening where she was able to see how a PR campaign is launched from the company’s perspective.

As a result of this internship Katie now has an amazing achievement to put on her CV as she has worked with one of the world’s most well-known brands which will look impressive to future employers. During her time with Coca-Cola she was able to talk to some people who were on the company’s graduate scheme and learned some advice on the recruitment process which will help her apply for this scheme after she graduates or any other graduate scheme.

"My creativity skills were challenged when I was tasked with creating a potential marketing plan for Coke Zero. I feel I excelled in this assignment as my supervisor was impressed with my suggestions. I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and have proved to myself that I am good at working under pressure and time constraints."

"In particular, my networking skills have been developed hugely by this opportunity."

"A few of the people I have worked with have mentioned the prospect of me returning to the company to undertake some more experience in other areas of the business, which is something I am very excited about."

"Katie came into our business with first and foremost a great attitude. She was keen to listen, learn and contribute. She was happy to challenge if she thought the tasks would not aid her learning which showed confidence and assertiveness beyond her years. Her positive attitude saw her fit well and quickly into all the teams she was placed. In each team she contributed positively and added value in all her projects."

"Katie showed extremely high levels of intuition, willingness to learn and an ability to adapt to the multiple of different tasks that she was faced with. Her input around how her peers use and view mobile devices in their everyday lives gave us some useful insight into our core target audience and this was delivered professionally and on time."