Intern Review

I enjoyed the internship structure and thought it was organised very well. At CRUK, the internship is really designed for you to get the most out of it as possible. Making contacts, including shadowing other people is greatly encouraged. It really comes down to luck however as to whether you find yourself with a good line manager who will give you meaningful work

I felt valued and supported in the work I was doing, but didn't receive a lot of it. A lot of the time I was bored and felt I could have been utilised more.

Again, the support and guidance from my manager was average at best. We had weekly catch ups, which were helpful, but the tasks given to me felt very mundane and pointless. They never really made much effort to include me as a team member, and felt rather indifferent to the whole thing when I left.

I was given an individual research project which basically involved 3 months of googling. The work became tedious quite quickly and I felt like I had no real purpose there. The internship role at first seemed very interesting, but a lot of the things that I was supposed to be doing were never fully given to me as tasks, or they were very simple and didn't take much time at all. I tried to be enthusiastic at first, but in the end found it hard not to stare at my phone all day

I was responsible for my piece of work, I suppose. But I don't think it will make a big impact at all, and to be given a very boring and simple task for 3 months felt to me a bit patronising. I should have been given more responsibility.

I learned a lot about myself, which was very valuable as someone at the start of their career who had no idea what they wanted to do in life. I learned a lot about the working environment, and especially the charity sector. The internship scheme is very good when it comes to support and extra workshops for career development.

The majority of people were friendly and approachable. Interns also on the scheme were all lovely and very welcoming. However, I found my immediate team quite hostile and didn't want to socialise with me at all. I'm an independent person, so if I feel left out I don't generally care that much, but it would have made my experience a lot better if my team were less insular.

On a grand scale, the internship scheme is very well run at CRUK. It depends entirely on which stream you apply for and on your line manager's enthusiasm for a new intern when it comes to how well your individual internship is set up. Mine was a bit rubbish, but this was very much the exception rather than the rule. Most of the other interns were very happy in their roles.

There are plenty of opportunities that interns can take on their own initiative to develop. There are CRUK days, intern career development workshops, and opportunities for interns to take part in intern fundraising events.

They are appealing if it's the sector you want to go into, there are lots of opportunities going. But it wasn't for me in the end, so on a personal level, I don't see myself working for CRUK again.

Yes, the groups of interns were all lovely. Fundraising activities were a great chance to get to know people better.

Central London isn't known for its affordability. At least CRUK pay their interns now though, so you can sort of have a life and make ends meet.

Islington is lovely. There are great bars all around. But no-one lived anywhere near Islington to go there on a night out, really. The long commutes everybody has to do make things quite antisocial as people are coming into London from all over.

Lots. Loads of volunteering events, fundraisers, yoga, Netball.