Business Leadership Intern Review

10 weeks has never flown by so quickly, I've thoroughly enjoyed the placement! It didn't feel like a task to go to work every morning because I enjoyed what I was doing. The graduate recruitment team are incredibly helpful and provide you with a good level of support from the outset.

I have definitely felt like my input and ideas were valued, although I was an intern I felt like any other member of the team. I was given various opportunities and encouraged to put forward my own ideas on how we could improve things on the projects I was working on.

I was given a good amount of support by both my line manager and supervisor in different ways. My line manager helped put me in contact with employees in areas of interest and network across the business, this was usually discussed in fortnightly objective meetings. My supervisor was there to go to for day-to-day tasks and projects I was working on - they were always more than happy to help if I needed it, provide clarity on tasks but gave me a lot of freedom and space to complete tasks in a manner that best suited me.

In the first 2 weeks I was not busy at all, my manager worked in a different office to me and I was yet to be allocated a project so I spent this time doing training and reading mainly. As I began to pick up tasks, projects and extra curricular work I became incredibly busy from Week 3 onwards, but I really enjoyed having a lot to do. I understood the importance of the tasks I was doing and how they impacted the business. I worked on a range of things, some I felt were less challenging than others, but I understood why they had to be completed.

I was given a good amount of responsibility and was able to ask for more workload if I wanted it. It was fantastic to have a valued input by people I worked with and was trusted with work that would otherwise be done by another colleague. I was given a project to oversee and was also able to improve how the project would be delivered and communicated to other employees.

My degree is in engineering so the purpose of the internship was to thoroughly develop my commercial awareness in the energy sector. I've gained such a breadth of knowledge and insight throughout my placement due to the size of the business. I've received training on project management, planning & forecasting and Six Sigma which I will definitely be able to apply in future studies and work. I've also had the opportunity to take part in a Innovation challenge with other interns which looks at reducing carbon emissions and pitching our idea to senior members of staff - this has probably been one of the highlights of my internship as my Masters focuses on sustainable engineering.

The office was based in a Call Centre so it often got quite loud and made it difficult to concentrate but there were other quiet areas to retreat to. Everyone was so friendly and always up for a chat! I was based in the office with 2 other interns however there was no team for me to work with as the team I worked for were based in other parts of the UK. There was the option for work for home but I didn't get to utilise this as my placement was only 10 weeks - I think this would have been beneficial to my experience.

There were lots of opportunities for development, Centrica organised an Excel training session where we developed key skills for working efficiently and presenting data on excel. We took part in development day where we got to take part in challenges and team building exercises with all the interns. We also had the opportunity to fundraise for Carers UK which was fun.

Really appealing, the graduate scheme sounds fantastic as it is a rotational scheme and similar to the summer placement I believe there is a lot of opportunity for personal development and growth. Centrica's work culture really values it's employees.

Yeah it was great living with other interns, a bit like being at university. Although there was only a small number of us based in Manchester we got along quite well so we'd go for casual drinks if we weren't too tired and a couple of us also went to the gym together regularly.

Accommodation during the internship was provided which was a huge help, this made the cost of living a lot cheaper. It was a 20-30 minute drive to the office and travelling costs were not covered by Centrica however the interns would often take turns driving in and giving each other lifts. Manchester has really casual cheap places for socialising and really expensive places so there's a range of stuff for everyone!

Manchester has a fab nightlife however I didn't get to experience it much because many of us were busy on the weekends or travelling home.

Not that I was aware of, I think there was more for the interns based in Windsor/Staines.