Financial Operations Intern Review

Travelport has provided me an enriching experience with many opportunities along side my day to day job. On top of my job I have been able to: meet the senior leadership team (including CEO and CFO), participate in raising over £10k for charity, volunteer at a charity and undertake my own projects. I have really enjoyed my time at Travelport and I've found the business really interesting as there is always so much new change!

From my first day I was treated like an employee and not an intern. I was welcomed in on my first day and the atmosphere in the team was great and really positive. At the end of my placement I felt really valued by my team and it has been great working with them. I am really grateful to have joined such a lovely and supportive team who have helped me a lot over my time on placement.

At the start of my placement I completed my training program that my manager designed which was a great foundation for the placement. Throughout the year I had regular one to ones with my manager every week which allowed me to get any help with my work or get any support regarding my personal life. Also at Travelport you are assigned a mentor who is not part of your team. This is great as you can meet someone new from a totally different department and get their support and guidance throughout the placement.

I was incredibly busy on a day to day basis which has meant I was able to get lots of exposure to plenty of activities. Having a lot of work also enabled me to gain new skills in prioritization and time management so I feel like this has been a great experience for my personal development.

I was very shocked at the level of responsibility I was given (in a good way). I looked after 5 countries across my time at Travelport and the activities ranged from: contracting customers, billing customers (as per the contracts I raised) and completing the month end process. It was quite intimidating at first, but the level of training provided and support in place gave me the knowledge and confidence to complete my duties.

I have been able to dramatically improve my: organisation, time management and prioritization skills. I feel like when I go back to university I can apply these skills to my degree which will make my final year a lot easier. I also believe that my excel skills have substantially improved.

The office has always been a great environment and there is a lot of fun in the team. As a department we have gone out for meals and even played rounders in the summer. I have also been lucky to go on various team building days. But overall, everyone is very nice and the company has a great culture.

My internship has been really structured with my training program to start with. The placement has also had a series of development sessions (focusing on things like presentation skills, CV and Linkedin work shops) and business learning sessions (focusing on things like the future of the workplace, the 4th industrial revolution and sessions where the SLT will talk to us about other topics). Overall, it has been very structured with a broad range of activities across the 13 months.

We have been lucky to have a broad range of training. As a Financial Operations intern I have been lucky enough to participate in the Engage program which looks at improving: your customer service skills, understanding of change management, communication skills, team building, ownership and a few other activities. The company also has a training platform which hosts a series of videos on topics like: IT skills, compliance and ethics training, business skills, security awareness and many more topics! HR also run the development sessions and the business learning sessions.

The company sometimes recruits former interns to come back after university and work in their previous role. Travelport does not have a Graduate scheme currently. It would be great to see this in the future as I feel like it would be great to come back and try a different role after university. I've enjoyed the atmosphere and culture at the company, but, its a shame there is no graduate scheme to apply to in the future.

Across the placement we have been on many nights out and there was also the Christmas party which was great fun. Some teams also have team building days which is a great opportunity to get out the office and have fun together. Travelport also has a social club which runs event on a monthly basis.

Being so close to London the cost of living has been quite expensive. I have found the rent more expensive than my university accommodation and general price of things like food and fuel are higher. The cost for socialising can be expensive depending on where you go on a night out.

In terms of nightlife, it is fairly easy to get to: London, Reading and Windsor. Around the office there isn't a lot to do on a night out so its probably best to travel to London, Reading or Windsor but these places are easily accessible by train or an Uber.

There are plenty of opportunities outside of work. For example, the CSR programme we have completed things like: The Big Sleep Out, marathons, charity walks and the 5k Tough Mudder. The company also has a social club which runs monthly activities like: Go Karting, pub quizzes, comedy nights and many more!