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'd say from the beginning being relatively nervous to meeting other interns to my then line managers, I was finding it quite stressful. However as the weeks started to fly by I grew into my position started getting along with my colleague feeling comfortable working alongside them. In conclusion it was a great placement in the insurance world and to corporate life as a whole.
Even though not having much connection to my colleagues initially they welcomed me well and never hesitated to give help or explanations for even the simplest of questions.
To begin with there was a lot of support and guidance given to me since I never had any previous experience working in the sector. I would say as the weeks tailored by and then working cross team I wasn't given as much support as before but this was a risk I was taking working cross business units .
To begin with I had very little to do, then I'd say between the middle period of the internship the workload started to increase at the right pace where I was comfortable enough to keep up with the work given to me. Towards the latter stages of the internship I was getting very busy, so overall it balanced out.
A lot more than I had initially expected, every project I was assigned to help with was a live business case so I could see the relevance to it which was great as I was seeing the importance of the work being done. Spent time even presenting to clients for an ongoing project to a major ngo.
Time management towards the latter stages of the program was key as I was being given multiple projects so working out which to tackle first in terms of priority and ease was key. Networking around with other colleagues from outside my placement is a skill I'm sure to need to on my corporate journey
The Company
Usually very relaxed and welcoming, never had to deal with any colleagues treating me as an "intern" so the atmosphere allowed me to integrate well with my team.
The outside functions such as a speaker series, intern reviews and volunteering days, were organised very well and there was never a point when anything was in doubt to poor organisation. The team I was working alongside was at time chaotic however that never really bothered me since I've always been quite used to that.
The main standout was public and professional speaking training day, that was the personal training I had never wanted to request myself but knew it was something I had to improve on so having that opportunity was great. Outside that it was lacking I feel.
Sports and Social Club
Subsidised/Company Gym
Financial Bonus
The internship feeds into the graduate program so it is very appealing, furthermore due to the scope of the business there are numerous graduate programs within other teams that I was able to find out about during my internship.
The Culture
It was good, quite difficult as for many interns they are having to commute into work and that journey itself is quite long so it wasn't daily during the weeks, but we always were able to catch up at the end of the week and in the worst case we were always able to meet up for lunch.
Central London does have a price tag for living and socialising, I was lucky enough to be living in Central London so the cost of living wasn't much of a concern but I could see how it might be.
Good but then very expensive.
I regularly went to a weekly football session set up by employees which was great, but then outside of that there wasn't much.
Details
Internship (1 Month+)
Actuary
London
August 2019