Summer Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my internship here at Allianz and couldn’t believe how comfortable I felt. The environment within the workplace was extremely welcoming and social. I was able to fit into my team quickly and with ease. There were many opportunities available to me that was relevant to my personal development.

Throughout my internship I feel I was treated like a permanent employee and not as an intern. I was given real responsibilities, supported by my colleagues. I found it easy to ask for help when required. I truly felt valued, not only by my colleagues but by the wider team as well!

The support and guidance at Allianz was unbelievable. I truly felt my personal development was valued and encouraged. During weekly meetings with my buddy and line manager I was able to express my objectives and interests, in which I was invited to conferences, meetings with members of other departments as well as other things, which then allowed me to expand my knowledge in areas of interest.

From the moment I joined Allianz, I was given real responsibilities and project work to take on independently. As well as this, my buddy and line manager helped forward invites to events and conferences I may be interested to. I also shadowed other departments and areas, several times a week. Overall, I believe I had a perfect balance between work and knowledge sharing.

From start to finish, I was given a lot of responsibility. I independently worked on projects that would impact not only my team but the wider team also. I was relied upon by my department to deliver in a timely and professional manner, which I believe allowed me to stay on top of my development plan regarding technical and soft skills.

I have developed extremely valuable skills during this internship and look forward to using new techniques I have learned along the way. Not only have I been able to develop soft skills and interpersonal skills, I have developed technical skill within programmes such as SAS and Excel. These skills are important within my degree, as I am required to complete programming modules. As well as this, applying team work in day to day work as allowed me to think about executing tasks in a different manner.

The atmosphere in the office was extremely friendly and welcoming. Everyone was extremely social and easy to talk to. I shadowed a lot of people during my internship and didn’t find it difficult when organising and emailing them to book the meetings. Everyone I met and spoke to was passionate about their roles and loved working at Allianz.

It was quite apparent how much effort had gone into organising my internship. At the beginning of the internship, all interns and placement students attended a welcome day, where important dates were discussed and presented. Throughout the internship, we could discuss any issues or queries with our buddies or line managers, which was great support. Mid way through our internship, we had a mid-internship review, which was really useful as we were able to reflect upon our objectives, add any more if necessary and finally we had a leaving presentation in a well organised, fun yet professional manner.

In terms of personal training and development, I feel that a lot of time and effort was invested into me personally. I had a buddy I could talk to about anything, at any time and a line manager who was fully supportive and encouraged completion of all of my objectives.

The social scene amongst my fellow interns was unbelievable. I feel so fortunate to have met such amazing people. We had great nights out together as well as organising our own BBQ's and cinema trips. We sat together during lunch and were able to work on a project together which was great fun!

I felt there were so many opportunities to get involved with at Allianz. As well as benefits such as a gym and swimming pool, I got involved in the Netball team and would take part in weekly practice games. As well as this there were plenty of social events such as a Swimming party, BBQ and charity events!