This review was submitted over 4 years ago, so some of the information it contains may no longer be relevant.
Rating
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The Role
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The Company
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The Culture
- 1. To what extent did you enjoy your work placement or internship?
- 2. To what extent did you feel valued by your colleagues?
- 3. To what extent were you given support and guidance by management/your supervisor(s)?
- 4. How busy were you on a daily basis?
- 5. How much responsibility were you given during your placement?
- 6. To what extent did/will the skills you developed, and training you received, assist you in your degree studies and beyond?
- 7. What was the general atmosphere in your office?
- 8. How well organised was the overall work placement or internship set up?
- 9. In terms of personal training and development, to what extent did the company or firm invest in you?
- 10. What were the perks on your work placement?
- 11. How appealing are future employment prospects within the organisation?
- 12. Was there a good social scene amongst any fellow placement students/colleagues?
- 13. What was the cost of living and socialising in the area you worked in?
- 14. What was the Nightlife like in the area you worked?
- 15. Were there many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work?
The Role
I very much enjoyed the placement with M & G Prudential in Edinburgh. The project was interesting and gave a large amount of scope to develop a range of skills. The office was a great environment to work in and time was allocated by senior staff to us for personal development
The staff are what made the placement for me. Management spent a considerable amount of their time to engage with us and make us feel welcome. the buddy programme was also useful however generally not too relied upon due to the help fullness provided by the whole office staff contingent
as mentioned above, the management were very active in their role of looking after us. they took a keen interest in how we were keeping up and had no problem with us reaching out to them to chat or to learn abiut what it is they do day to day
days tended to vary considerably. in the first week things weren't too busy but that is I assume to be expected. on no day did we have no work to do but some came as slower than others. the benefit of a self driven team is that we could make work to do that suited
as a small 3 person self lead team we had a great deal of autonomy within the business to do what we wanted to do. having been given requrements by the business we could go and interprate this as we saw fit so in terms of responsibility we had a fair bit
hard to say since I haven't resumed my studies yet but learning python and basic coding skills is invaluable as it is something I am not given any time to do day to day at uni. so taking this skill set back to uni will be invaluable for my final year
The Company
the office atmostphere was great. the open environment made everything feel more connected and made communicating with other people a lot easier, everyone was chatty and friendly
ideal, could not ask for much more in terms of a project spec. at first the structure seemed vauge but after getting into the swing of things the project became clearer and thus did the internship. however the communication between London and Edinburgh was a bit faffy at times for us
the main investment in us was to give us time to learn new skills if we wanted it. it is quie invaluable to have that downtime to go away and learn and it is something I got a fair bit out of, as well as training sessions dlivered by professionals from London and in edinburgh
Flexi Time
Staff Sales/Staff Shop
yet again its hard to say, in terms of uptake I would really enjoy and be keen to take up employment with the firm full time however no set plans or progression procedure are as yet clear however I believe there is a transition from intern to graduate in some way
The Culture
being a new office and a staff of mainly commuters there wasn't much in terms of a social scene. I believe the London interns had events set up but there was nothing that included us or any opportunity to go to London to meet our colleauges which would be nice yet expensive for the firm
I commute from out of Edinburgh so I cant comment. Where I live is cheap but in a different city, thus the commute is expensive and no consideration was made for that, however the salary more than covers it. in terms of the area of Edinburgh the office is in, its a cheap part of town but there isn't much locally other than offices
as stated above, cornerstone is in a retail park so the nearest good nightlife is in the city centre (of Glasgow, but im bias). Edinburgh has a lively scene but isn't all too close to the office
not particularly, yet agan this is a more London centric type thing and due to the duration of the placement there wasn't much opportunity to get involved in what does go on outwith the office, however I am aware there is events and groups go on after hours like football etc
Details
Internship (1 Month+)
Scotland
August 2019