Intern - Information innovation team Review

I really enjoyed my time at CRUK. Everyone was receptive and helpful. In the first few weeks I had induction meetings with people from different teams to understand a bit more about the teams and projects. It was really motivating to see that everyone was happy to help interns develop as many skills as they wish and that staff wants you to finish this internship with either an opportunity here or somewhere else. There are many opportunities for career development and interesting events and workshops - you need to be selective and think about what you want to achieve in the 3 months you're at CRUK.

The culture at CRUK is one of collaboration and celebration. Staff is genuinely interested in helping their colleagues and hearing about your work and projects. I was able to have some insight into different teams/roles I had interest in by simply requesting 'Introduction meetings' with people that had been referred to me by my team as points of contact. My team - Information Innovation - was very in sync and aware of everything that’s going on. My manager made sure we were having weekly catch ups and that these were used not to discuss work related things but also how I was doing in general and whether I needed help with job applications. My manager and other colleagues even put some time in the calendar to give me feedback on a presentation I had prepared for an assessment centre.

My manager was great at giving me support and guidance. I was able to tell my manager which skills I wanted to focus on developing, which meant there was a degree of flexibility in the tasks I was delegated as my skills development focus changed throughout the internship. This flexibility motivated me to learn more about the project in my own pace and act on my curiosity about different aspects of it. I was given the opportunity to make real contributions to the project and to understand more about project management and delivery whilst being given constructive feedback on how to improve.

CRUK is an organisation where a couple of meetings are part of your daily routine. I was quite busy as I had to complete tasks given by my line manager, attend meetings related to the project I was working on as well as other relevant meetings within the department and I was also involved in fundraising activities as you have the opportunity to deliver events to fundraise towards an Intern fundraising total.

I was given responsibility over my tasks and the freedom to do them in different ways. I was given initial guidance, which was a great starting point, but then given the freedom to think about the tasks from different perspectives and how to achieve the main goal. I was also given complete responsibility over running one of the interns' fundraising events, which was an exciting challenge.

This was my first office role, which meant I was able to develop all the administrative and meeting related skills that I would be expected to know coming into a full time office role. I was also working closely with the Information Innovation team in the development and 'test + learn' phase of a project in the organisation. I worked on various tasks including creating an audit of external initiatives, writing a risk assessment for the project, understanding what goes into a business case and writing a value proposition canvas for service users and many others. I also coordinated the delivery of a fundraising event and picked up skills on event planning and delivery including stakeholders management, delegating tasks and working towards a deadline.

General atmosphere around the office was great. People are always happy to help and want to know more about what your team is up to in terms of new projects and ideas. There is a lot of fundraising happening on a day to day basis but staff seems happy to support different events.

The internship was well organised, we had different points of contact if we had any problems. I had weekly catch ups with my manager to update her on how things were doing and how I was finding the current tasks I was working on. We also had 3 review meetings during the internship, where we looked at what my goals were and how to achieve those by the end of the internship. All the information we needed to know was sent to us by our intern coordinator, who was incredibly supporting and was always happy to help with any queries, and all the info was clearly communicated.

A lot is invested on personal training and development at CRUK. I felt that there were many opportunities to learn new skills as well as some more reflective activities such as hearing about other's experiences and career development. We were told in advance about any intern related events such as CV workshop and presentation skills workshop as well as charity-wide skill development events that we might be interested in attending such as career talks and Excel workshops. My manager was happy for me to take time off to go to these events and work on my personal development, which made me feel like a valued member of the team and also more positive about the culture at CRUK.

Future prospects are really appealing and staff seems keen on offering interns full time roles. Could be a bit more clear on how to apply but in general we are encouraged to go meet with hiring managers and talk about whether a role would be suitable or not and ask as many questions as possible about job specs and applications.

The social scene was good, interns organised a weekly evening after work to go to the pub and catch up over a drink. My team wasn't very keen on going out after work (lots of mums) but we had quite a feel meetings that we geared towards meeting new team members and understanding how we work together as well as scouting lunches (discussing new ideas we have seen on news/internet/etc).

Quite expensive as Angel in an affluent area but we had discounts in some pubs and bars, which meant we could save some money when going for drinks after work. Also lunch and travel expenses are reimbursed so I was not spending too much on a day to day basis.

Nightlife in Angel is quite busy, lots of bars, pubs and restaurants in the area so there is a great range of options.

There were quite a few fundraising opportunities to get involved in as well as a number of exercising classes and activities.