EID Intern Review

I was treated as a permanent full employee thought my placement and never felt like "just and intern". The training and mentorship I was given was good, however this will depend greatly on who your manager is. I was given freedom to work on exciting new projects that weren’t originally part of my role and given opportunities to get involved in community projects.

Everyone I worked with was very friendly and helpful. GE is advocating feedback to be given to employees and this has meant I regularly get feedback on how I’m doing and how I could improve. My role valued in the company and I became a subject matter expert in my role, this meant the team valued my role and would come to me for questions it.

My manager was extremely supportive and gave feedback to me not only on how to improve in my role but how to advance my career. There were many times when the influence of my manager could help me overcome roadblocks. Management were friendly and easy to approach when it came to guidance on projects.

This will greatly depend on the role you are given. I know some placement interns who had very little to do while others were very busy. I had a mixture of both busy times and time where there was little to do. Fortunately, at times I had little to do I could get involved with other projects so I always had some work to do and didn’t have to sit around idly.

I was given a lot of responsibility and lead a project that involved working with external collaborators, this involved new technologies the team was not familiar with and meant I was responsible for delivering the project. Outside of this I was given the opportunities to get involved in other projects where I could take up important responsibilities.

Unfortunately, my role turned out not to be as technical as I was hoping it to be. This was due to changing requirements of the team and the priorities of some tasks. I have however gained an excellent understanding of the business I was in (healthcare) and plethora soft skills. My presentation and communication skills have greatly improved from what they were before this.

Everyone in the office were friendly and approachable. I found the atmosphere was neither lively nor quiet but somewhere in the between. Due to the small office, I was placed in everyone knew each other well. People would get together on birthdays to celebrate in the office and sharing cakes and other treats was common.

HR did a good job setting the placement up but orientation felt a little short and I didn’t quite know where or how I fitted in the company. I had no issues with HR when joining and any changes in my contract or tax was easily fixed. The organisation of the team you are placed in me vary however. When I first arrived, my team were not prepared however I quickly felt like part of the team after just a few weeks.

I was given the chance to go to conferences and special training. The company has invested in several online training platforms that have enabled me to improve my technical skills. When starting, you are given many training courses to teach you about your chosen business and relevant laws and compliance.

Some teams face a hiring freeze so it is very challenging for them to hire you if they’d like to. The alternative is to apply to one of their graduate schemes however they can be very competitive and you will likely not be working in the same place as you were.

Unfortunately cost of living in the area I worked was somewhat high and there wasn’t that much to do however this will vary greatly depending on what business you are placed in to. If the cost of living is too high however it is easy to live just a bit out and travel in to save on rent. As for the social life London isn’t too far nor is Watford.