Health, Safety, Environment and Security (HSES) intern Review

I have enjoyed the placement a lot. Its easy working hours and pays well, especially considering Centrica pay for your accommodation. I was based at the HQ in Windsor, and the facilities are decent as well with a cafeteria and plenty of casual areas for coffee breaks. The best bit about this company is that the projects they give you to work on require you to think, and have some autonomy - this kept the 10 weeks interesting day in day out, and meant that the internship flew by quickly. While some elements can be your classic 'intern' type work, I got lucky and was given one large project to work on and propose, so I got to shape it and approach the work largely I my own way.

I feel valued in that my work matters and will see a change in the working practices of the company, and have had to consult with a wide variety of people within the company about it. My immediate team as well are all very friendly and lovely people, so I couldn't have asked for a better work environment for work to not feel like work.

This is a tricky one as my manager is based in Grimsby, due to my initial manager deciding on leaving the business shortly after my arrival (not due to me though!!). However, all things considered, she has been hugely communicative and has checked up on me with phone calls and emails regularly. I haven't felt very isolated at all, so considering the situation I think I have a very decent level of support behind me.

I was busy enough not to get bored but not that much that I had to work beyond 5. The job sets an expectation of 9 to 5, and I have only worked several times beyond 5. This is including up to hour for lunch and often a coffee break somewhere in the day to refresh my productivity.

I have been given a large amount of responsibility for my project. It is working on a program that closed 3 years ago and needs re-proposing in line with how the business has changed in recent years, which or Centrica, having undergone a complete restructure in 2015, meant a large overhaul of the process. I was given the task and allowed to approach it how I wanted, with the guidance of my manager when I didn't know what to do next. Overall, therefore, I was given a huge amount of autonomy considering I am only with the business for 10 weeks, and the process I have proposed will be used for around a few years.

Some skills like organisation and such I believe I had prior to the placement, and utilised them throughout. I did further develop, however, my confidence in engaging with a wide variety of people as my project required a lot of collaborative effort, and various software skills that I hadn't been able to use at Uni.

The atmosphere in the office is very open and inclusive, especially considering I am based on the HQ of a globally expanding corporation. Windsor is a lovely open plan office, with hundreds of people inside and lots of attractive features like a large living wall of plants inside the main atrium.

The overall work placement is fairly well organised, with accommodation provided and lots of days where all the interns got together and did planned activities such as a presentation skills session. In terms of better organisation, I think for me knowing my project sooner and having maybe a bit longer to settle in would have been beneficial, but as this is a job you have to be realistic with these things.

The company has invested presentation skills in me as far as I can tell - this is from a day spent with a professional presentation coach that all the interns were required to do. They might also be considered to invest through some social, but largely I was there to work.

Centrica are a great graduate employer with strong graduate schemes in a huge variety of roles. Moreover, they provide lots of opportunities to move around within the company and there is a lot of scope to work in so many different areas, from power stations to the corporate centre.

The social scene is pretty good with the other interns... being based on Royal Holloway accommodation, it is like being back at university. Similarly, northern based interns come down every now and then for events, and so it was a good laugh to meet up with them as well. However, Egham (where royal Holloway is) does not have much to offer.

Living is the same as everywhere, and accommodation was paid for - a valuable thing in the expensive SE.

Not bad - Windsor has a few decent clubs but expensive

Surprisingly not that many in the place I was working. There were some things with other inters, such as football and a charity run, but not much outside of intern life.