CADP Summer Intern Review

I enjoyed the internship very much for various reasons. Mainly the people I met were wonderful, very open and resourceful, keen to describe their duties, assist when needed, support any onerous tasks or just facilitate or work by creating a friendly and inclusive environment. In general, it was a fun experience.

Since day 1 I did my best to offer value to my team. This effort was clearly well estimated by my colleagues who realised I could be a valuable member of the team even if I would stay there for 10 weeks. They make me feel like being there for long.

Although I am a self-starter and in general very independent when working, my manager and other senior staff were always available to provide me with information, materials or just share their experiences and support my learning and working routines. I really appreciate their efforts as without their guidance I would have been lost.

There were days when I had no free time at all and had to spend all my time at my desk and other days that few tasks had to be done and I had free time to network, attend interesting events or follow trainings regarding relevant topics for my team.

A very positive aspect of my internship was the fact that since week 2 I undertook significant responsibilities for the projects I was assigned to. That was really constructive as I learned a lot, met brilliant people and collaborated with teams across the globe which greatly enhanced my summer experience.

During my internship I focused both on learning technical skills about the sector I was working on but also soft skills that could be transferable to other sectors. This skilful combination is very important so as to take most advantage of the internship and leverage it as a strong tool to start a career.

The atmosphere was in general good. Although in a corporate environment it is not often to have funny breaks, in my team and in the surrounding teams there were quite few times when we were joking, laughing or had moments of joy to reduce stress and increase our happiness. I liked it very much.

Since the very beginning of the application period until the end of the internship, everything seemed to be well defined, tracked and public to anyone interested. There were some changes and hidden parts regarding some administrative procedures, however they were explained when asked for. In general it was a seamless journey.

The training that was given, as well as the unrestricted access to online training material was an incredibly positive surprise. All the materials that are available to full-time employees were open to interns. Many sessions on hard and soft skills were also organised to let us familiarise ourselves with the industry and the tools and applications used.

It was so appealing that I received an offer for a full-time position in the future. On the basis of the points mentioned before, the company is a great organisation to work in and offers all advantages that I am thinking about when assessing a potential future employer and my preferences to join.

Although there was competition, the ambience among us was very friendly. We had the chance to share a lot of our private knowledge and previous experience with fellow interns so as to let all of them have a glance of what we can all achieve together when collaborating for a common goal.

London metropolitan area and especially Canary Wharf area are supposed to be considerably expensive, which is true and very important for an intern. Even if the company organised some social events free for the interns, socialising without subsidies was much more expensive than expected before moving to London, especially from a continental European point of view.

Nightlife in London is not active around the financial district of Canary Wharf, but towards other boroughs. In Canary Wharf there are quite many places to hang out after office, but not to live a fancy nightlife for which we all preferred to commute to the down town or other places.

It is true that the company offered quite many opportunities to get involved in many activities, starting from volunteering for local communities, take part in conferences and interesting talks, become member of a business resource group focused in specific topics or even participate in initiatives to increase awareness on diverse life issues.