Intern Review

I enjoyed it. Was given the responsibility for a single large project from day 1 that lasted the duration of the internship, plus various other smaller projects as I went along.

Almost everyone I spoke to was friendly, listened to my comments and answered my questions. In meetings, if I had something to say, I was generally listened to. I felt more like a permanent employee than an intern.

My manager and my manager's manager were always happy to chat/answer questions. The people I worked with very also very patient with me while I learned processes and gained the necessary technical knowledge.

Never felt like I had nothing to do. My supervisor always made sure I had something. Plus there was always something to be done with the projects I was working on. The balance was pretty good, I worked on average probably 8 1/2 hours a day and never felt under pressure to stay later.

Quite a lot. On day 1, I was immediately sat down with someone on my team and shown through some of the technical processes I was going to be working on. It was a very steep learning curve but I was pretty much given responsibility, with quite a lot of help, to build a technical process that's going to be used on a regular basis in future - there was none of the stereotypical fetching coffee and photocopying.

My degree basically covered the theoretical side of the area I worked in on the internship, so quite a lot. It added a real-world context and when I return to uni, I'll probably be able to relate quite a lot of what I study to what I worked on.

Almost everyone was lovely with only a few exceptions. Like any big company, there are some bureaucratic inefficiencies but you get the impression a lot of effort is being put in to fix them. Also, regular blogs from the CEO and the opportunity to ask him questions is a nice touch.

Well organised in terms of what I worked on. I was told on day 1 what I would be doing/aiming for, and I was basically told to view the internship as a 9 week interview. I was able to arrange meetings with various people to find out more about their role and about the company, and get involved with a few other things in addition to my main tasks. Only some minor issues with getting necessary programs and accesses on my computer which took a couple of weeks for some things,

A lot of people took time out of their day to talk me through their roles, including senior managers. I was also given a 'buddy' who was on the grad programme who helped me through the internship and answered questions.

Pretty appealing. The grad programs are pretty good from the sound of it and they offer support for various qualifications. And, once you're in a permanent role, there are opportunities to move around your area to try different things. Also, many of the managers are quite young, so its more of a meritocracy rather than just offering promotions based on how long someone's been at the company. That said, places on some of the grad programs are very limited so you still feel like you're competing with others even after doing the internship. Also, the more competitive grad programs have to be opened to outside applicants, so you don't hear until October or November, which isn't ideal when you're going back to your final year of uni - you don't know whether to apply for other things or wait to hear. If you do wait and don't get on the grad program, you might struggle to find something similar elsewhere.

I was in the head office, the interns and I went out on average once or twice a week. Good bunch of people. The grads invited us for the occasional night out as well.

Guildford is quite expensive.

Good (but expensive) pubs in Guildford, not so great clubs. We usually went to wetherspoons or drank in someones flat before going out.

There were various sports team we could get involved with. More opportunities for permanent staff.