Analyst Intern Review

I really enjoyed my placement year at Virgin Media, I feel that it has given me invaluable experience and while not being too challenging, the work was interesting and greatly improved my skills sets. The people I worked with were all supporting and the overall culture and atmosphere of the organization was enjoyable.

I felt incredibly valued by colleagues, I felt that they didn't think any less of me because I was an intern. I was treated like any other member of the team and I was trusted with work that was similar to other colleagues with more experience. I was an integral part of the team and contributed lots during my time there.

I was given lots of support by my line manager, more than I would have expected. I felt that he guided me right from the beginning, making sure I knew all I needed to know and taught me lots of skills and tips to succeed in the role. He always made sure that I had opportunities to take on work that would show off my skills to the wider team and he made sure I was comfortable with workload at all times.

I found that with this job type the days can be busy or quiet, as we are doing work based on requests from other people. Some weeks were really busy, but not too much to handle, and others were quiet, but I still managed to find things to do. I feel like I was busier than I expected to be as an intern, which is good.

I was given more responsibility than I expected to be as an intern, I was given high profile reports that were sent to Directors and beyond. However sometimes I didn't get to see the end results of my reports as I wasn't included in the discussions made my managers and Head of Departments about what they were using the report for and the decisions made as a result of it.

I think the skills I developed aren't directly related to my degree, but there are definitely some transferrable skills. I have learnt how to use excel competently and think this will help me in my final year. Skills like time management, presentation, communication and organization are all ones I have greatly improved on and will help me for the rest of my career.

The atmosphere in the office was really friendly, and we chatted a lot in between work. Sometimes it a got a bit loud as it was a big office with other teams around us, but it didn't bother me and the overall atmosphere was really cheerful. Saying that, when we had an important piece of work to do, it was easy to concentrate and get on with it.

I think the placement was better organized than the previous year, but there can still be some improvements. This year we were only the second lot of interns on our team. They left it a little too late to inform us about the process for the grad scheme as I didn't know how to apply for this for a long time. However, the grad and intern talent team are always working hard to improve the overall process and I am confident it will always be improving once it has been in place for longer.

As interns we had 4 separate training events that were in Hook, so if you weren't based there you got to travel, paid by the company. These sessions worked on improving our personal development, presentation skills, CV writing and skills during an interview. This was more to benefit us in our future careers in the long term than to benefit the company in the short term.

I am applying for the graduate scheme because this appeals to me, I think there are good opportunities within the company for graduates and beyond the schemes. The schemes involve rotations which appeals to me because I would like to experience working in different parts of the company to see what I enjoy the most.

There was a Graduate committee that attempted to organize social events for the grads and interns, but as I was based in Manchester and the majority in Hook, there wasn't a great social scene. However all the interns had chances to meet up over the year for the training sessions and also the summer event, which meant I built good relationships with them.

I lived with my parents so I just had to pay them a certain amount of rent. But in an around Manchester, there are many areas with reasonable priced houses and flats, and plenty of opportunities for a house share as Manchester is the home of many students and young people renting rooms.

Manchester has a vibrant nightlife, and it has a variety of different options depending on what you like. There are clubs, bars, restaurants and different priced venues such as student clubs or more expensive ones. It has something for everyone and is very accessible by public transport.

The graduate committee organized a few social events in various areas, and there was one in Manchester. There was also a Team Event in Nottingham where we got to do an activity during the day and go for an evening meal, and the summer event for the grads and interns was a good event to get to know the new starters.