Project Management Intern Review

I really enjoyed my placement year because I was given a lot of responsibility in projects happening on the site and I felt included as a regular member of the team. This is something that I wasn't really expecting when I first started due to the temporary nature of my work and the amount of experience that I had when starting.

I felt valued by my colleagues and had a good relationship with the team I worked with. There were a couple of occasions where I didn't get the credit I felt due for some projects but overall it was a positive experience.

I got some guidance from my manager but I had to arrange meetings to get any feedback. There wasn't always that much interaction and I feel there were times I wasn't doing the right thing but wasn't told so. I will put some of this down to myself as I could have been more proactive and asked more often. However on the occasions I was proactive it did feel like it was deemed low in priority. The placement was during some challenging periods so it maybe down to the circumstances I was in and is certainly not a reflection of the company as a whole, merely what I experienced as an individual.

It differed from periods of being extremely busy to periods of having nothing to do. Further into the placement I started to find my own projects with other departments to fill time as well as gain experience in different areas. I've put 6 as it could be seen as a good or bad thing, but ultimately it's down to you as an individual to go out and influence your experience.

There was quite a large amount of responsibility, mainly being no one else knew how to do a lot of the work I was doing. All of the regional sales leaders came to me for information and reports which they relied upon to make sure business was captured for the whole of the UK. I also helped forecast expected revenue for the quarter and look into any queries that arose, so if numbers were low for example it was my job to look into why they were low and potentially find new or missed opportunities which could influence how well the team met targets.

I feel I have learnt a number of different skills, some of which I had not expected to. Excel was the main skill that definitely improved, particularly going from the occasional user to working with it everyday (it's an incredibly valuable skill, some of the full time people still don't have the hang of it and were asking me for help). I think my organisation and time management skills have definitely improved, as well as networking and working to a number of short deadlines with a many projects. I think these will help when going back to Uni, particularly when it comes to managing tasks within modules and knowing how to prioritise work load. Looking further on past studying these will definitely help me settle into a new position a lot faster as the learning curve won't be as steep and I can utilise these skills in new job role and/or company.

Relaxed, friendly and open. It was relatively serious in that people were focused on getting their work done but everyone was really nice and friendly with most people being approachable if you had questions. In my team everyone was really nice and chatty, making all the interns feel like regular employees rather than school kids or giving off the impression of "you're an intern therefore you get treated differently".

I think the it is set up relatively well, you get a good experience of a real world business and learn some useful skills whilst doing so. I do feel the handover period for interns was quite short and it does lose some momentum over the course of the year, mainly learning and development wise. However I see the openness and flexibility of the position as a positive as it allows you to explore other opportunities and work within the business.

Initial training is done by the interns (as they're the only one's who know how to do the job) and there are a few opportunities to get involved with other projects and training during the placement but this is very much down to the job role and department you work in. There were online presentations that had development opportunities but there were limits on what was viable due to the time that you're with the company.

I enjoyed working for GE and the prospect of working for them in the future is appealing. The intern role was a good experience and I learnt a lot from it, but I feel for me as an individual I didn't get as much out of it as I could have (that's not a reflection of the role, more as my expectations beforehand). GE have some very interesting and appealing grad schemes that I am interested in and have made queries about too.

I lived at home and commuted, so my social interactions were limited due to the logistics of living about an hour away. From the events I did attend and what I know others got up to the social element was relatively good. Though this was mainly when in London as the areas around the office were a bit lacking in entertainment options.

In the immediate area it was expensive to live, but a short journey away (15mins) it was more reasonable. Social activities were relatively cheap but better places were more towards central London so travel made it expensive.

In the immediate are, not great just a few pubs, but about a 15/20 minute journey away (less depending where you lived) were two main towns which had a large variety of clubs/bars etc.

Within GE: There were loads of volunteering opportunities, events like a private fireworks display and nutrition weeks that involved free massages throughout the day.Outside GE: Depends on the area you lived but there were lots of gyms/health places, golf courses and wooded areas or if you couldn't find anything there were many options a short train/car trip away.