IS (Information Services) Analyst Review

My internship at National Grid has been a great one gaining lots of valuable experience whilst developing working relationships within the company. Right from the start everyone was really welcoming and supportive which helped build my confidence as the internship went on to contribute meaningful work to National Grid. There are plenty of opportunities to learn about the company, different roles/areas and even attend site visits to substations and gas compressor stations. Overall the National Grid internship is an experience that I would highly recommend.

I definitely felt valued by my colleagues and managers. Throughout the internship I was tasked to help and contribute work which is either currently being used to date or will be used by my colleagues and managers in the future post my internship. Furthermore people will invest their time to help you, for example, I was able to schedule one to one meetings with lots of people in a range of different of roles to improve my understanding of the company. All of my colleagues and managers respected me and valued my opinions or ideas.

My managers were very supportive of my work and encouraged me to challenge myself to go beyond expectations. They were always willing to answer any questions that I may have regardless of how 'stupid' you may perceive it to be which eased me into the internship quickly. In addition, they encouraged me to go out and understand the company better and to attend any site visits that would arise.

My work levels had periods of fluctuation, at the start of the internship work levels are naturally lower as you come to grips with the role and work as well as meeting and getting to know your team. However, once the half way point had passed of my internship, I found myself very busy with plenty of work to do and found myself having to work slightly longer hours. Despite this, I found it incredibly useful not only to experience a very busy schedule but to be able to contribute work on lots of different applications or areas. So overall I was happy with the levels of work throughout.

I was given plenty of responsibility ranging from running my own little project to presenting to a manager who oversees an entire area of the business. I was responsible for designing, developing and delivering a site that would be used by people working on different projects as well as given the responsibility to chair telecom meetings between members of National Grid and suppliers. These are just a couple of examples of the types of responsibility that I was given during my internship.

The skills and training that I have developed will be invaluable progressing onto my final year degree studies and beyond. One area that National Grid encourages and focuses on is personal development which was completely new to me before starting. It has given me ample opportunities to think about areas of improvement and then record and take action to improve these whilst gaining feedback along the way to be able to add further development or build upon your strengths.

It's a great environment to work in, lots of people communicating to each other sharing information and there truly is a buzz in general in the office. People who work at National Grid generally are very proud of their work and this really comes through in the office environment. However, there are days where the office can be very quiet.

The internship was very well organized with training in place as an introduction to your internship as well as a closing session to stimulate thinking on the overall experience. Interim and final reviews and presentations are set up near the start as a progress update to HR and for gaining feedback and areas of development for yourself. Objectives are set at the start for you to work upon throughout and by the end to have completed as much as possible towards these objectives. However, there are various installations or software's that you need to be given access to which can hinder progress on work. Nevertheless, this does help you experience what its like to get delayed in delivering work and how to approach it.

National Grid invests a lot into yourself especially putting emphasis on personal development and what actions you should take to develop skills whilst monitoring your progress. The training at the start of the internship helps you become accustomed to this and introduces various concepts to stimulate your thinking of ways you can develop. Overall it has been really beneficial the investment in personal development and I will continue to monitor progression going into my final year at university.

The National Grid graduate scheme is a very appealing scheme as you can gain valuable experience within three different areas/projects and based from the internship they would invest heavily into the scheme. People who I have spoken to on the graduate scheme have been really enjoying their time and have found the experience so far invaluable. At the end of my internship I was offered a place on the graduate scheme so that opportunity is definitely there for those thinking of applying for the internship.

There was an excellent social side with my fellow interns. We all got to know each other early on and since then organized many social events between ourselves as well as inviting industrial placement students to join us. In terms of the social side with colleagues, there are various sports that you can join with the company, for example, football or a running club and team will organize team meals that you will be able to join. The only issue I had with social events with the other interns was location; a lot of the social events that happened were up in the other National Grid office which would be quite the trek so found myself having to select and choose which to attend.

With my internship I lived at home so answering this question is difficult without the actual experience, but, as far as I am aware the area around the office is not too expensive to live in, but its not cheap either. Where you live depends on the travel as the office is a bit out in the open so socializing is also difficult to assess. However, there is a pub very close by to office that is good to go for a meal or drink with colleagues or the closest immediate area has lots of restaurants and bars.

In the immediate area there are no clubs nearby, the closest being is a pub. In order to reach a town or area with a nightlife would be a train or a car journey away.

Seeing as I took the choice to live at home during my placement, the travel to and from work was quite lengthy so I didn't take part in any other activities outside of work except for running. However, I know some of the other interns got involved with the football teams with National Grid and there were opportunities to get involved with activities at National Grid as well as the area I lived in. I just personally didn't due to the time it took me to travel home.