Summer Intern Review

The work was great. It was incredibly varied, giving me exposure to many different areas as well as providing many learning opportunities. They really give you a lot of responsibility.

The colleagues were great and were easily the highlight of the internship. Everyone is very happy to help you if you're having trouble or need help with something. Additionally, I felt as if everyone in my team was very heavily invested in my personal development and helped me along by helping me develop my technical and soft skills.

My line manager was great. At the beginning of the internship we had a conversation as to what I would be interested in doing as well as what he would expect from me. It was made clear in the very beginning that my line manager wanted it to be a mix of me doing things that I was interested in and what he needed to be done. This allowed me to work in the areas I was specifically interested in along with providing value by doing the things that he wanted.

Fairly busy, there was always something that needed to be done either on my projects or things that the team was working on. Additionally, as interns we got to attend a lot of development days, various insight sessions and events and all of those things really added up.

Probably could have been given more, but the issue with that is, that it really is a very large organization and many projects require very in-depth/specific knowledge that is simply impossible to get in 10 weeks. Additionally, most of the projects are very long-term, which means that in the 10 weeks that you're here, you can't really get too involved in them. With that said, I felt like the work I was given and the work I did added real value to the company and had a large degree of responsibility attached to them, especially for an entry-level job.

Have yet to go back to studying, after my placement, but I feel like the skills especially in terms of communication and learning how to manage my own time as well as planning my work are going to be of great benefit to my degree studies and beyond.

The general atmosphere in my office was incredible! There were lots of informal "events" after work which was great and my general office had a very laid-back atmosphere to it which I greatly appreciated after having a previous placement where I had to always dress in a suit. Probably worth to note that there are some fun "attractions" and things to do if you had the time e.g. table tennis or pool.

The internship was very well organised in my opinion. The team had made it very clear from the beginning what was expected from you, organized development days and upskilling in sessions as well as other events. The internship also gave interns that were interested and willing to go above and beyond many great opportunities such as internal competitions that gave exposure to senior management.

I've touched on this earlier, but the company invested a lot in me as an intern. We've had development days where we worked on soft-skills such as communication, teamwork, interpersonal skills and leadership through very fun events, The Everest Challenge was a great highlight of the placement. Similarly, the organization hosted quite a few events that helped you learn about things like planning and forecasting, working on Excel skills and things like CDM. Also worth to note, that as an intern you get access to the same resources that employees do, so there's a lot of room to learn something if you wanted to.

The prospects in the organisation seem to be great. One thing that the organisation does very well is promote from within, which is very exciting. In addition to that, if you join as a graduate you get to go on 4 different places in very different roles which makes provides very diverse experience. There's also the opportunity to essentially work in 4 different organizations. You could have one placement in British Gas, another one in Local Heroes and the third one at Hive, which are all very different organizations in terms of what they do and how they operate and I feel that that experience is very valuable.

There was a great social scene, at least with the people that I've been placed with. I think this could be hit or miss depending on where and who you get placed with. Some of the interns were based in Hull, I believe and when I got to talk to them it didn't sound like they were having too much while we were living it up where I was based!

One huge benefit of the summer placement is that the company organizes your accommodation for you and covers it. This is partly reflected in decreased pay when it comes to the other schemes, but after looking around for properties and doing the math on what it would cost to rent a place for 10 weeks, it worked out to easily be one of the better paid placements. It's also great not having to go through the pressure of finding somewhere to live for 10 weeks. Cost of socialising is going to depend on where you're based. Prices are going to be very different in Hull vs London. Also note: if you want to source your own accommodation or happen to be based where you have friends or family that you can stay with, that option is fully available, but you won't get the increase in salary that you might expect as a result of not taking the accommodation. P.S. Accommodation provided was really nice.

Pretty good, mostly depends where you're based. As mentioned above, you're going to have a very different experience if you're based in Hull or London, which I think is pretty self-explanatory. With that said, the interns are great at organizing things between themselves and when I was visiting other offices, I always had a great night out.

As an intern you're very much encouraged to take part in anything and everything that you want. The organization hosted a competition where the interns raised money for charity, which was a lot of fun. There was also a competition that involved creating and working through a business idea which was also a lot of fun. You're also encouraged to go on CSR days and the like if that's you're interest. Lastly, the grads do a lot of interesting things outside of work and from my experience, are more than happy to have the interns join them.