HR Intern Review

Overall, I have really enjoyed my placement in the HR stream of Centrica. I was given some interesting projects to work on, and really enjoyed working with my team and others in the company to achieve them. Centrica is a great company to work for, and although they are going through some changes, the internship programme had not suffered as a result. Everything was well thought out and I felt like they really valued our work and our opinions.

I felt very valued by everyone on my team, and that was evident in the fact that they took time out of their day for meetings with me to discuss their role in the company and how I was doing on the placement. They even asked my opinion on projects that they were working on that I did not have a direct involvement in, which made me feel valued and part of the team.

I was given tremendous support by my manager, who always made sure I knew what I was doing and had regular catch ups with me to see how I was doing throughout the 10 weeks. The only reason that I did not put 10 stars is because of the alignment of the timings over the summer - my manager went on holiday, as did a lot of people in the company, during my internship over the summer, so there were weeks were I did not have face-to-face contact with my manager. However, I was able to text her about anything I needed help on and there were others in the team who I could reach out to as well.

I was quite busy on a daily basis, but I had autonomy over my projects, so how busy I was depended on how I planned out my projects and what things I set out for myself to do that day. Therefore, there were days were I had a lot to do, especially just before deadlines, but there were also days where I did not do as much and instead did more admin tasks. The balance was good for me though.

I was given quite a lot of responsibility. As I stated before, I was given autonomy over my projects, which made me feel valued, and I also had projects that I know would be used by the company in the future and that I was not doing it just because they needed to give something to me to do during the internship.

I think the skills I developed will help me in my degree and in any future jobs I will have. This was my first time in a corporate environment, so the commercial awareness and general workplace etiquette I learnt is something I will take with me through my career. I also had the chance to develop various skills, as Centrica held development days for all the interns to improve our excel and presentation skills, for example.

The general atmosphere in the office was relaxed, even though the Windsor offices are the most corporate of them all since they are the headquarters. If you are based in Staines or Manchester etc., then the offices are more relaxed. On some days, like Mondays or Fridays, the offices can be quite quiet since a lot of people work from home on these days.

I found that the internship was very well organised. My manager had projects for me to do from day one, and I found that I was not sitting around much waiting for someone to give me work. There were additional development days that the company ran, as well as the opportunities to go to other events in Centrica's other offices.

I think that the company invested quite heavily in us, as they paid for our accommodation, as well as providing us with our own laptops and phones. They also held development days, as I mentioned before, which included rock climbing and other activities, as well as days to improve our excel and presentation skills.

At this moment in time, I still have a week left of the internship, so I have not received an offer on to the graduate scheme yet. However, my impression is that unless you do something to mess it up badly, you are offered a grad scheme offer. Getting on the grad scheme is quite appealing for me since I think that Centrica invest heavily into their graduates and it looks like a good programme to be on.

I think that there was a good social scene amongst the interns, especially as most of us (around 40) lived in the Royal Holloway halls, so we all cooked together, and hung out together in the halls after work. We all also travelled to and from work together and shared lifts, so there were plenty of opportunities to get to know everyone.

The cost of living wasn't so bad - Centrica paid for our accommodation at Royal Holloway, and the food cost was ok since Egham high street had Tesco and Iceland. The food at the canteen at work was fairly priced too. However, getting around could be pricey if you did not get a lift from someone or drive yourself, since Royal Holloway is in the middle of nowhere and it was a 20 min drive to work.

I put 1 star because I did not personally get involved with the nightlife during my internship as it is not something I enjoy doing, but other interns seemed to enjoy it and had a fun time. There wasn't much of a nightlife in Egham so most people went out in Windsor or even London sometimes.

I think that there were some opportunities for interns to get involved in, such as our charity challenge and going for drinks and meals with the grads and the rest of your team, however, I think that there could have been more opportunities outside of work. However, I do know that there were other interns who did get more opportunities to get involved, such as a charity run etc.