Greater London Regional Office Contractor Review

I enjoyed meeting a wide variety of people very much. I wanted to go into retail banking because I knew nothing about it and I'm pleased to say this internship has taught me a great deal about retail and how things are organised across a region. I didn't find the tasks I had to do particularly rewarding but they were reasonably fun and I could sense some of them helped the team.

I think that their working days were not particularly helped nor hindered by my presence. Having said this, as the internship progressed I was getting more tasks and seemed to be trusted more. I think in the beginning weeks I showed a degree of initiative and ability to work well on my own which meant that more and more was given to me. They were welcoming, easy to work with and were more than willing to answer my questions which was great.

I was given as much support as was necessary which happened to be not very much. The tasks I was given were well-explained and whenever I had a question I asked it and I was given an efficient and useful answer. When I wanted to do things outside the set tasks given me I was encouraged and given useful contacts. I wasn't checked up on every day but I much prefer the amount of supervision I was given to that anyway.

I rarely had a full day of hard work that kept me occupied. This meant that I could check things more thoroughly and could give back very meticulous, finished pieces of work that I knew had been double-checked and were accurate. I had my own project to be getting on with and that spanned the length of the internship and I could dip into that on slower days. I welcomed not being too pressurised - it allowed me to step back and consider the bigger picture of my work.

I would say moderate responsibility. I ran a conference call, and created a region-wide newsletter. That was fun and had the potential to influence a lot of people but this was only one section of the work I was given. Some of my tasks were administrative, though they would prove helpful ultimately, they were relatively small things that amounted to a small change in day-to-day business. Again, I didn't mind this and thought the range of tasks provided a good, varied balance.

I think that I can sometimes make silly mistakes in my degree work because I don't check or I'm in a hurry. This internship has taught me the value of detail and care in work that I will certainly take away. These internships are always useful as they give you an insight into the working world and allow you to appreciate the subtleties of working with colleagues that you do not experience at university.

The atmosphere was orderly and efficient - a bit like being in a library. The team work very hard and though there was a feeling of quiet organisation and intense work, I felt no pressure to be silent or to not ask questions or to not chat with colleagues when they had a spare second. I needed to get things done so I have no problem with this atmosphere and team meetings were always relatively fun and collaborative. I liked the atmosphere - I imagine it's what a lot of offices are like across the country.

It was not very well organised but this is almost entirely my fault as I didn't contact my line manager with enough notice and for a long while he wasn't sure whether I was coming or not. So the organisational issue is my fault and it's almost not fair for me to comment. Despite this however, my line manager organised branch visits for me, a relatively large and long-spanning piece of work, and allowed flexibility. It was not that well organised but I think the team did their utmost with the notice they were given.

My line manager very kindly said he would look over my CV - that was great as I'm always unsure about that kind of stuff. I attended talent development programs, not designed with me in mind but they were still informative. Other than that I don't think my development was at the forefront of the team's mind but they offered to help me regardless and I think if I had thought of more to ask they would have been very useful.

I think it's very unlikely that I will work here in the future. I haven't left a particularly bad impression but I think my skills are better suited to other things and that I have an approach to things that doesn't always suit the way the team works. The things I am weakest on, i.e. taking initiative, and engaging fully in team discussions and being heard, are the areas I tried my hardest to improve which inevitably meant I made mistakes. From day one, I treated this more as a learning experience rather than an opportunity to prove myself the finished article to an assessor - I made mistakes and am pleased with what I have learnt but no, I don't think I have glittering prospects within the organisation.

I lived with some lovely people in the accommodation provided which I'm really pleased about because I am the only intern in this office and would have had a very isolating experience otherwise. The social scene with them was great and I think I made some firm friends but I'm sure interns in other offices would have had greater opportunity to make bonds and links than I did.

I made a conscience effort to be frugal so under £10 a day average I'd say for living and day to day, mundane activities. Socialising varied wildly and I travelled around quite a bit so I can't comment on that.

I was Oxford Street but I don't like Oxford Street particularly and it's just shop upon shop so I'd say my experience of the Nightlife around here is poor. Note that I never made a conscience effort to "live-it-up" around here and always went to other parts of London. Oxford Street is very central and allowed me to travel to different spots with ease - that's good.

I finished promptly at 5pm every day which meant that my evenings were my own. I joined a gym and had plenty of opportunity to engage with London as a city and see a lot of my friends who live and study here. I think the dream internship (in terms of this question) is to be finished by 5pm and so I can't imagine having more opportunity to get involved with other activities than I did.