Customer insight summer placement Review

I enjoyed my internship with Centrica greatly, I was placed in the insight stream for British gas and was able to do work that was really interesting and useful. The company focused well on training and personal development and provided a variety of work and activities including workshops, team building days, and final presentations.

My team was great, and we were supported by both the current graduates and full-time team who were incredibly helpful, friendly, and supportive. We were treated like normal colleagues and were able to join meetings, team days and socialising as well as finding help and guidance with work. Everyone went out of their way to make us feel welcome.

My managers were extremely friendly and supportive, and after my original work stalled they gave me amazing help and freedom to pick up my own project that played to my strengths, and went out of their way to support it. They were always available whenever I had questions or an issue.

My work was slow to start but eventually managed to get going whenever I started work on my main project, but admittedly there were days, particularly towards the start and end of my placement, were I had very little to do. My team were great and helped find various tasks for me to do.

During my placement I was given responsibility for several small projects which I enjoyed, mostly in data analysis and building database tables. I felt this was a good level of responsibility as although I felt useful it wasn't too much pressure from the beginning. It would have been useful to be able to ensure my work had a long term impact after leaving, but it was useful and interesting nonetheless.

During my placement I was given great opportunities to learn basic coding languages and use of databases, hone my research skills, and improve my knowledge of excel and other basic office software that will be great going into my third year research and later career. We also all received excel training and a workshop in presentation skills.

The atmosphere in the office was good- everyone is very friendly and welcoming towards the interns and the insight teams are especially great. The office buildings themselves are fairly basic and were going through renovations at the time which led to somewhat overcrowded offices at times, but overall a good atmosphere.

The internship was very well organised and set up, with a number of useful events, workshops, and projects in place to ensure personal development and work to do throughout the placement. We were given an induction day to ensure we were fully briefed and aware of what we would be doing and timetables were set up to organise our progress.

Centrica invested heavily in personal training and development, and provided a variety of workshops and training sessions. Interns also tracked progress and personal development throughout the placement and were encouraged to report this throughout and at the end of placement with managers or supervisors. We were given feedback throughout the placement and application process.

Future employment prospects within Centrica are very good. A large number of interns are offered places on the graduate scheme after completing the placement, and everyone is given the chance to give a final presentation outlining their work as a part of applying to the grad scheme straight from the placement. We were given plenty of opportunities to talk with grads and discuss future careers with Centrica.

Most of the interns were given accommodation in Royal Holloway university for the duration of the placement, which allowed a great social atmosphere as everyone was housed together in flats. Some social events were specifically organised by Centrica for the interns to meet, and additionally team nights out and work social events were a good way to get to know colleagues.

Centrica provided accommodation nearby in Royal Holloway university on top of our salary, which kept the cost of living low. The area I was in was Egham and Staines, and cost of food and travel was reasonable, particularly when compared to the nearby London prices. Socialising could be expensive at the surrounding pubs, clubs, and restaurants, especially if it involved going into nearby London or Windsor.

The area I was placed in was somewhat lacking in nightlife- there were a few nearby pubs but these were small and sometimes expensive. Going into London was also very expensive, especially as options for getting back to the sometimes remote accommodation were very limited at night. The closest area for nightlife was Windsor, but often interns would organise their own activities at the accommodation.

Outside of work the interns organised a number of activities at our accommodation, and I was able to attend team nights out with the full time employees and grads as well. During work hours we were also tasked with a charity project and placed in teams to organise volunteering and fundraising activities which were a good break from work. A team building/development day at a nearby sports centre was also organised by centrica.