Summer Intern Review

I felt valued as whenever I completed a piece of work people would thank me for it and whenever I asked for feedback forms they would give me positive feedback wherever possible.

I was given a lot of support by management and supervisors. I had 3 counsellor meetings throughout my internship in which we discussed how I was finding the internship, what could be better and any feedback I had gotten from work that I had done for other people. I also got support and guidance whenever I needed help on a task that I had been given, whether this was in the form of an email, a phone call or in person.

Throughout the internship there were a couple of on-going projects that I was involved in and I had a summer internship project to complete which often did keep me busy. However, at points I felt as though there wasn't much work that I could help with even after sending out emails to all members of the team asking for work, which is understandable, but from my perspective there wasn't enough to keep me busy at these points.

I was given some responsibility throughout my placement, but probably less than some other interns as I did not get to get involved in any client work. However, I did get to help in producing other documents and attended a lot of internal meetings. Any work I did was checked by a manager to make sure that I had not made any mistakes and to give me help if needed.

The internship really improved my microsoft office skills, in particular my use of excel, which will help me in any future graduate role that I get and also potentially with projects at uni. I also got a good introduction into the industry through training/induction sessions and this extra information has allowed me to confirm that I definitely want to do this as a job.

In general, the office that I worked in was quite a small office so it was quiet on most weekdays, and was a bit more energetic on Fridays as more people were in. Both of these atmospheres were nice to work in. There were also drinks every second Friday which contributed to a good atmosphere as everyone was in high spirits.

I think that the internship started of well as there was a full one day induction for the Scottish offices in Glasgow, which was good for getting to know other interns so that you don't feel alone in starting the internship and so that you know more about what is expected from you. There was also an event on the last day to celebrate the end of the internship with the other interns. However, I think that the organization the rest of the time was not ideal, much of the work I was involved in I had to search for myself, and it also involved working with people in different offices so I feel as though it was difficult for my office to know what I was actually involved in all the time.

There were many induction/training sessions, not only specific to my service line, but also for all interns such as weekly lunch and learns and online/digital training. I was also told a lot about the job just from chatting to colleagues about their experiences. I got told a lot about the exam process and structure that I would follow if I was given a graduate job here (although I imagine it would be similar in other companies too)

If I am offered a graduate job here I would definitely take it, however this has not yet been confirmed either way.

There was a great social scene amongst the other interns. We had a group chat since before the internship even started and managed to arrange to meet before it started. In addition to this, most people were always eager to go for drinks or go on nights out in addition to work parties/socials.

I already lived near the office so I was able to commute from home every day. So I can't really judge this as it was very cheap for me. However, nights out come at a standard cost, though being a regional office I'd imagine this was cheaper than in London for example.

Edinburgh nightlife is fairly decent but I don't have that much to compare it to.

I'm sure that there were some opportunities, but I did not get the chance to get involved in any.