Patent Records Intern Review

Cancer Research UK is a great place to work, with a friendly atmosphere and a worthwhile cause. The internship scheme is very well organised and numerous workshops to support your career and skills development are organised for you. I really enjoyed getting involved in the workshops and taking part in intern fundraising and the mentoring scheme. I found my role slow at times and not particularly challenging. I did a lot of admin which I felt did not develop my skills, but knew that my work was important to the team and the research pipeline.

My team were friendly, and the whole organisation has a very welcoming atmosphere. I felt like my work was an important task for the team to complete, and that they would not have had the time to do it if I was not there. Therefore I felt like I was a valuable member.

Although my manager was busy, she was available for me to ask questions when necessary. If she could not help I could go to other members of the team for information. However my work was largely independent, so for most of my queries, I could find the answers to them online.

The workload varied a lot over the internship. This was mainly because I was responsible for my own, single, project so could not switch tasks when I had little to do. I never felt like I had too much work, if anything I would have liked more to keep me engaged.

I was given a lot of responsibility for my project. I worked largely independently on my tasks, only getting guidance and direction from my manager and supportive information from my colleagues. I organised meetings and telephone calls with internal and external stakeholders, to which my manager and a colleague attended.

The internship has helped me to get a better idea of what I would like to do in the future. Through the excellent mentoring system I organised meetings with people across the organisation - from science communications to policy. This gave me a much better idea of the potential career paths that are available to a science graduate who does not wish to pursue a career in research.

The atmosphere in the office was good. Although quieter and less sociable than the fundraising part of the organisation, people are friendly and work very collaboratively. There are regular cake sales or sweets/cakes/biscuits/homemade sausage roles etc etc left for anyone to help themselves. A constant supply of cakes appears to make a happy office :)

The internship scheme was well organised. We had training sessions during the first couple of weeks and mid and end-placement reviews. I received a structured plan of the tasks for my internship on the first day. Although the timescale of the schedule was unrealistic, it was good to have an idea of how long each task should take in comparison to others.

The training and development, particularly given the fact that this is an internship scheme where the employees are only at CRUK for 3 months, are excellent. We had workshops on CV/cover letter writing, LinkedIn, project management and advice on the graduate scheme. They really invest in you during the internship, with a view to also supporting you afterwards. I also had the opportunity to attend talks on areas of interest, such as why international research is important and drug discovery.

The internship does not lead directly onto a permanent role. However Cancer Research UK like to employ previous interns because they understand the organisation. During the internship you have access to the internal jobs board - jobs not yet available to external applicants. If a job comes up that suits your skills and experience, you have a better chance of being successful than not having done the internship. The organisation is a great place to be, so if a suitable role comes up then I would love to take it.

The placement is based in Angel, Islington. However from about October 2019 the office will be moving to Stratford. London in general is an expensive place to live, and most interns were based across London. I lived with family during the internship as, even though the internship is paid, the salary would not be enough for me to live comfortably in London. There are lots of supermarkets and places to eat around the offices, e.g. Sainsbury's, Waitrose, so lunch can be bought cheap. There are plenty of bars and Cancer Research UK staff get discount at some.