Finance Intern Review

I really enjoyed my placement. I found I felt like a crucial part of the team as opposed to an intern. There are a lot of perks that make the work aspect a lot more fun. I found the long hours a struggle but overall it was outweighed by my enjoyment.

I felt very valued in the way that I was included in all meetings and helped with all types of work, not just typical intern duties (printing/scanning etc). I felt valued as I was trusted with important work and checking over my colleagues work before meetings. I felt like I was trusted as part of the team.

I had monthly one to one meetings with my manager and occaisional one to one catch ups with the rest of my team. This helped with identifying any problems or concerns as well as discussing what was going well. I could also use this opportunity to discuss any problems outside of work.

It depended on the time of the month / time of year / how busy the rest of the team were. When the rest of the team were busy I tended to be quite quiet. The beginning of every month was always a busy period but you learn how to prioritise and spread out your tasks so you're not bored.

I had a lot of responsibility. A lot of my work involved retrieving, consolidating and checking information which would then be passed on and / or presented to higher management, different teams or circulated round the company. I also had monthly and weekly tasks which I was solely in charge of.

The main skills I have developed which will help with my degree studies are the working hours routine, prioritising and allocating time to tasks, and the use of Microsoft Excel. The work content itself will not be very useful for my degree but will be essential later in working life.

In the finance deparment the atmosphere was quite quiet and serious. Other offices and other floors seemed to be a lot more lively and fun, so I assume it differs per department. The whole office building overall has a nice feel to it with all the Disney decoration and themes.

The placement was very well set up - we had a week at the beginning to take over from the previous intern who ran through their notes and all their tasks and showed us how to approach them. The monthly one to one catch ups with management also allow everything to run smoothly.

I am aware of other interns having meetings and action plans to allow them to pick skills they'd like to develop and monitor their progress on these every week / month. Personally, I didn't have this option but I am aware it does happen in the company so in retrospect I could've asked for this.

The company don't offer graduate places, so there is no guarantee of ever returning to the company. I would like to return in the future and will have to hope my placement year stands me on higher stead compared to other candidates. I think having a graduate scheme would be good addition.

Again I am aware that some placement students had a great social scene within their teams and each other, but my department wasn't that sociable. There is one event that includes all interns in winter. It would've been nice for more of these events as some departments (such as my own) don't do much!

Dreadful! The office is quite far out of central London, and so getting to work alone took up a third of my pay each month. Moving to the area is just as expensive so there is no way around it. Still being considered a part of London meant that activities and events in the area are London prices - expensive.

There are plenty of pubs and restaurants around the area I worked but they are London prices - very expensive. As I said above, you either have to live locally which is extremely expensive leaving no budget for local nightlife, or you have to commute in which is also expensive leaving no budget for local nightlife as you also have to get home.

The opportunity to watch all the newly released Disney film during work hours is a massive bonus. Sometimes they will screen films purely for employees at the nearby cinema. There are plenty of events unrelated to work inside the office - I have seen less events outside of the office though.