Finance intern for Electric Power Division Review

I have thoroughly enjoyed my placement, at the start it was so hard to get used to the different way of life, the early mornings as I am in work for 8 o'clock and with so much to learn it can be quite stressful, but as time goes on you really start to make actual friends and with being given more responsibility, it becomes more enjoyable. There are always hard and stressful days or days when if you don't have as much work you wonder why you're here but overall its a great experience.

I really did feel valued by those I worked with, from the first day, they all made me feel so welcome and just brought me straight into their working lives. From lunch times to just over coming that being new, they took such great interest and got introduced to the whole EPD team at the start. After a few months, when you become a bit more independent, people don't just treat you as the intern but as one of the team.

At the start, there was so much support and there were no questions that were silly questions, I was put on courses and given training before I started into real work but its hard to get to grips with things until you are using actual data but as the year went on there was still so much to learn as you were being given more responsibility and therefore more guidance required.

It depended on the week as within a finance team, there are different periods of the accounting month which are busier. At the start it was like, get work to do, send it for checking and done but by being given more responsibility, you started to have your own work, of course it will still being checked but the work was coming to you first.

I was given quite a lot of responsibility, I have heard of other placements which gave you training for 3 - 6 months before they even let you anywhere near a figure but within two weeks, I was starting to be given small tasks to do. which I feel actually helped me to learn quicker.

I think the skills that I gained will be invaluable in future life. For example working under time pressure to get projects finished and being disciplined and focused to get this done which will come in very helpful in University. Also my excel skills which I thought were pretty good before starting here, have improved so much and there's so much more that I can use it to do now which isn't just geared towards CAT.

Depending on the time of the month as with certain parts being more stressful, but overall its a great environment, you work in a bay which has 4 people in it and the impression I had of working in an office definitely was not correct. I thought that everyone would just be stuck in front of their computers but we chat and have tea and coffee breaks together and its things like that which make the day easier.

Very well, they were well prepared for my arrival, I had my own desk and computer set up and the team that I was coming into was briefed that I was coming. The team that I work in is quite a relatively new team so there is stuff to learn and do.

The company invested a lot of time in training courses at the start and every year, each employee has mandatory learning, so everyone is always learning. Even when we need trained in something that other people can do, they set that up and it makes you feel good to realise that the company is investing so much time in you even though you are a short term employee, you don't get treated any differently.

There are different schemes within the company. There is a graduate scheme, and within the company, they do like to move you round within the finance department so there's lots of opportunities to learn something new.

There are lots of social events planned, we have team building days, at Christmas, go out for dinner and do secret Santa. When people are leaving for various reason, the whole team go out for lunch so a great social time with all.

There are a good few places near work that we would go out for lunch if someone was leaving.

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