IT Intern Review

I very much enjoyed my year as an IT Intern. It has revolved a lot around my own self-management. My role of engagement has taught me to be extremely self-motivating. getting all tasks completed on time and “staying lean to go fast”. When working on projects such as Project RemainCo where I provided a lot of data gathering and maps of every GE site that was impacted by sell and separation activities I had to be very self-motivating.

I have felt extremely valued by my colleagues. During my placement I have gained great understanding of key drivers for GE in regard to colleague behaviour and the ability to make decisions in the context of good business awareness. During my internship I have undergone a lot of training exercises in regards to ‘the spirit & the letter’. GE’s commitment to perform with integrity is expected of every employee as a non-negotiable expectation of behaviour.

I experienced lots of different management styles during my time at GE including authoritative which provided long-term direction and vision, but done with a firm, fair participative style.This ensured ‘everyone had an input’. From experiencing such styles I was given a lot of support in my time as an intern. I have learnt to always ask for help as GE is a friendly environment.

GE’s mission is ‘delivering results in an uncertain world’ and I believe I played my part in this whilst on placement. I acted in an engagement role where I would be assigned into mission critical projects to help solve diverse company problems on a continuous basis. As an intern I was trusted with sensitive information and was given the opportunity to lead my own projects.

My biggest achievement during my internship was project managing my own project of a GCom implementation for a GE site in France. This was for a central connectivity solution for GE Capital residual entity businesses. The solution consisted of 130 phones to cover 2 floors of the site. My role as a project manager was engaging with the technical team and working closely with contacts from other businesses to complete key documentation and draw up contractual agreements for LSA’s to be created and phone lines to be placed.

The skills I have learnt at GE are unforgettable and they have provided me with an enormous amount of knowledge which I can take back to my final year at university and benefit my future career. I have had tremendous support and encouragement from GE and I thank them for allowing me to flourish as an IT intern. I thank them for given me great experience and helped me further develop as an individual.

The workplace atmosphere was extremely friendly. I always knew that if i needed any support of help I could ask for it with no problem. I believe that workplace integrity starts with honesty, decency and trustworthiness being true to my word and honorable with my actions. Every staff member was approachable.

I do not believe that any further help could have been offered from my university placement office as I think that they were very informative and organised when recommending and posting placement opportunities on blackboard every day and offering CV advice and help. They ensured that as a student, I had everything I needed when looking for a placement and also for when I had gained one by the ‘Placements - Engineering and Environment’ organisation having access to forms needed such as health and safety and a student induction form. I believe I was very well prepared in finding a placement as I was determined in order to find one suitable to me. I worked extremely hard in the application process for GE by firstly having an online simulation test, telephone interview and then a face to face interview in which I travelled to Manchester for. I was extremely motivated in becoming successful in all stages of the application process as I knew that the IT Intern opportunity at GE was an amazing opportunity so I ensured that I revised and practiced for weeks before each interview in order to ensure I fulfilled them to the best of my ability. My placement itself was very organised and i had a handover with the current intern before me so i was able to gain knowledge from that before starting my role.

I gained personal development during a major achievement was my mid-term and end-term pitch outs. These were presentations that myself and the other Capital interns were required to present in front of senior GE and IT leaders. The mid-term pitch was February and I presented my achievements in the first 6 months of my placement. I was asked questions about my work. The first pitch was over a conference call and was quite daunting, but I performed both calmly and confidently presenting within time and confidently answered questions. The End-Term pitch out was in held in May in person at GE Headquarters: London. I was required to build a presentation deck of my personal profile, projects I had contributed to, and my placement experience. I presented this to all GE Capital inters, IT Leaders and the CIO of GE Capital HQ. At the end of my 10 minute pitch I was asked questions by the CIO of GE Capital HQ about my project achievements and my contributions towards them. I answered these questions comfortably and because of the presentation experience during my internship, I was able to put skills I had learnt into practice and deliver an excellent speech. This was a great achievement of mine as the beginning of my internship I would have been extremely nervous to perform a speech in front of anyone and it was incredibly rewarding to be able to stand in front of everyone and present confidently. This was a moment in which I realised how much more of a professional and well-rounded person I have become during my placement. I also performed trainign on GE learnign at the beginning of my placement.

GE have a graduate scheme called ITLP which I have applied to. I see this vacancy as a unique opportunity to work in a high-class environment, where I hope I can benefit GE and further develop my I.T and business skills. I wish to continue to work with one of the most recognisable industry names in the world, and hopefully playing an important role in helping them to deliver and achieve their objectives.

I was lucky enough to be part of an office with lots of other interns. There was a good social scene as we were all good friends and were able to attend team building events and nights out together. In regards to colleagues, we had events at Christmas and there will also be a leaving event when my placement ends.

The cost of living in manchester was quite high with rent coming to £425 a month for a 2 bedroom flat in the city center. Nights out were also quite pricey with manchester being mostly bars instead of clubs. All and all, it wasnt too bad and city centre living is always more expensive than more remote areas.

The night life was good in manchester as the city is split up into northern quarter and deansgate. There was a wide range of bars and some clubs. In the area I worked was Sale so there wasnt much going on in the area. The town centre of sale had a few pubs and restaurants.

There were not many opportunities to get involved in outside of work in terms of GE. They do not offer any clubs or gyms etc at my site. However, living in the city center meant there was loads to do in Manchester outside of work including gym, nights out and clubs.