IT Intern Review

- My internship took place at GE Healthcare, located in Amersham in the U.K. - Upon joining the company, we had a 2 week on-boarding period. For this, the first week was spent with the new interns and current graduates, learning all about GE and the tools used. - The second week of on-boarding consisted of a KT (knowledge transfer) between myself and the current intern I would be replacing (if applicable). - I felt like having this 1x1 KT really helped me understand the job role more, and it was great to meet my team straight away. This definitely contributed to my enjoying my placement. - The people I worked with, including my team, interns, graduates, and other colleagues were all great which made me enjoy the experience even more.

- In terms of the internship, we had the chance to become involved in committees. I chose to join the Emerging Technology and Professional Development committees, which allowed me to network with graduates across multiple businesses. I felt valued in both as I was able to contribute to the weekly meetings and take part in hosting and performing presentations. - In terms of my team, from the beginning I felt like a valued member. Over time I was fortunate to take on more and more responsibility, which was great. Understandably at first things will be a little slow as you are getting to know the team and GE, and the team on the other hand is getting to know your style of work and how you can handle the work / bandwidth.

- I was fortunate enough to have a great support network around me whilst at GE. (It should be noted that I worked for GE Healthcare so this support process I am going to describe may differ in other GE businesses.) - In my team, I had 1 direct manager and 1 dotted line manager (a mentor). - I also had a 2nd mentor who was not involved in my team. This was great to discuss issues outside of the team and to receive a fresh perspective on topics of discussion. - At GE Healthcare, they have a 'Buddy' system, where a new intern is paired with a graduate 'buddy' for support and guidance purposes. I was fortunate to be paired with a great buddy who listened clearly and helped me with any concerns that I had at the time. For any interns starting at GE Healthcare, I would encourage you to make the most out of this valuable resource, as I saw that interns missed out not making the most out of this opportunity.

- On a day to day basis I was busy. - Quite naturally, there would be some days which was quieter, and then others which were extremely busy. This is just natural for what is happening in the business at any given moment in time. - For me, what made me enjoy my placement even more was the ability to reach out and take on more work. I was interested in Data Analytic's and Business Intelligence- this however was not the team I was placed in. I therefore reached out to these teams to learn more about the work and asked to become more involved in these sort of projects. - To put it simply, after I completed my work within my team I had free reign to go explore what areas interested me. Looking back, this was great for my development as I got to experience so many different areas.

- I felt like I could contribute towards the work that took place within my team. - I was given a lot of responsibility here, and often was set to complete tasks with not a lot of support and guidance. - This was not because the support and guidance wasn't there, it was because I was trusted to drive the initiatives independently .

- Looking back over the year, I have had numerous opportunities to develop my skills further. - GE offer us training courses to attend, and I even completed a ITIL V3 Foundation Course whilst on my internship. - One thing to note- there are vast amounts of online material available to GE employees, make sure to take advantage of this when you start your internship!

- The office atmosphere did vary quite a lot. Our GE Healthcare office was located on a old site, meaning the facilities available were not exactly modern. For me personally, this did make me enjoy the year a little. - Colleagues around our IT office were very friendly and keen to assist when they could. - There were days where the office was quieter, specifically around holiday seasons (expected) and also the latter half of the week. - I would also often find that at certain times of the day it would be busier. For example, if colleagues are working with U.S colleagues, then the afternoons would be a lot more busy than the mornings. The reverse would be if colleagues were working with colleagues in Shanghai for example.

- The organisation was great as far as I experienced. - As I mentioned before, we had a organised and helpful on-boarding experience when starting the internship at GE Healthcare.

- GE Healthcare invests in young talent- the internship is part of the Early Identification program which shows that the company is serious about internships. - For IT, I was able to complete a ITIL V3 Foundation course, which GE funded. We traveled to Bracknell for a 3 day training on this subject matter. - Within GE, there are a lot of online resources available for which employees can take advantage of. For example, you can access Harvard Business Review articles under a GE subscription plan in order to learn and develop further.

ITLP is GE's IT leadership program. I have taken this following information from GE's website to help give a little introduction: "ITLP is a two-year program with four rotational job assignments focused on top GE IT initiatives. Program members lead by doing—gaining real-world experience by working on important and challenging projects alongside some of the brightest minds in the world. Information technology (IT) is critical to the future of GE. With over 11,000 IT professionals in roughly 50 countries, GE IT represents a major area of focus and investment across the company and is essential to maintaining our leadership, competitiveness and success."

I should be noted that I commuted from home whilst on placement. From the beginning, I knew socially this may be challenging. With that in mind, the social scene was very good! The IT interns formed a close friendship group, where we would often go out on activities after work. The local pubs around the office were key social gathering areas, and often on Friday's after work other colleagues would join us in there, which was great for networking.

For cost of living - N / A as I lived at home and commuted into work. For costs of socializing- GE Healthcare is located in Amersham, which is not far from London (you can get the underground into Central London). Therefore the costs of going out around work weren't exactly cheap, however it was affordable. I would recommend purchasing a Taste-card to make the most out of the local offers and benefits.

Being in a location that is not far from London, the nightlife is great. Costs are relative to the location and where you chose to live.

There were a few opportunities to get involved outside of work. We tried to organise charitable activities to get involved in which turned out to be very successful.