Intern Review

I enjoyed the bulk of my internship, including events such as site visits, networking events, the charity challenge, the project and shadowing opportunities. However, I felt that the bulk of my work load came within the last week and there were times in which I was bored during the middle section of my internship.

I did feel valued by my colleagues, they were friendly and we got on fairly well. However, there were often times when many of them weren't in the office and also my 'team buddy' worked in a different city so I wasn't always able to get the face to face contact other inters seemed to have had.

I was given a fair amount of support from my manager and supervisors. I had a weekly one to one with both my manager and my team buddy where I was given feedback as well as support and guidance on current tasks. I was also given help by my graduate buddy, particularly towards the beginning of the internship, getting to grips with working life.

On a day to day basis, I would say I was not that busy until the last week or so of the internship, partly due to the workload of my team that I was able to help with only increased towards the end. However, mostly I was able to fill my time completing training or doing work of the Charity Challenge.

I wasn't given a huge amount of responsibility within my team, as I needed guidance and assistance with tasks as they were all new processes. However with project work I held the role of team leader on several occasions which meant I was responsible for my project team and the work that we carried out.

I've definitely developed my time management skills as we had a few deadlines in the internship, which I will be able to use during the competition of my university studies. Also, the project and charity challenge gave me valuable team working skills which I will be able to deploy in future employment.

It was fairly quiet, mostly due to it being the summer holiday period but also because in my location, many people in my function chose to work from home. This made it feel very laid back but often a bit too quiet. However, there were busy areas in other parts of the open plan office that provided some background noise at times.

I think the overall structure was very good. We had a ten week plan which gave us talks, site visits and allocated project time so there was always at least one thing on each day. There was also the charity challenge for which we could do as much as we wanted for and also there was opportunity to organise shadowing in other departments.

We had bi-weekly themes with a variety of training courses linked to the themes and we also had access to Skillsoft and Lynda which allowed us to access a variety of learning/training files including interactive videos. We also had a 3 day induction at the beginning of the internship which was very learning intensive, with a lot of focus on personal development.

I have another internship with the company after the penultimate year of my degree, after which I have a chance of being offered a place on the graduate scheme. This seems like a viable option as the graduate schemes are typically two years, often come with some form of professional qualification depending on the department and are generally consist of 6 monthly placements in different areas.

There were around 35 other interns in my location. We often congregated at lunch as well as after work. We all quickly became friends as many of us were placed in the same accommodation so often socialised outside of working hours going for meals and nights out, exploring the city.

We were provided accommodation by the company with bills included so overall it was fairly cheap. The biggest costs included the bus ticket as we were on the outskirts of the city compared to the location of the office and socialising was probably around average costs for a fairly big city in the south.

The nightlife was great. There were lots of pubs and bars in close proximity to the office and of course a fair few clubs. The only issue would be that the accommodation we were placed in was not close to city centre so getting to and from clubs often was difficult/expensive. Also, it was during summer so clubs often felt a bit empty due to the lack of students.

Yes, other interns often organised meals out or trips to tourist destinations in the area. There was also opportunity to do charity work, especially with the charity challenge and a few other charity events I was able to attend which I found out through networking with people in different departments.