RDQ Intern Review

Overall the placement was an excellent learning experience. Very enjoyable overall, far more enjoyable than previous work experience in retail. Some days did drag and there were definitely on and off periods during the year. A good level of autonomy was given for how the day would be structured, allowing you to do what you want when you wanted within reason.

Most of the time I felt that my contribution to discussions, project work etc. was valid and you were generally given meaningful work. That said, some colleagues did give a very strong “you’re just an intern” attitude to your contributions. In addition, there was a definite expectation that interns would be available for tasks like cleaning when the same pressure wasn’t put on other colleagues.

Overall a very good level of support and guidance was given. When you had a question your manager or someone else would be ready to help you out. This included helping with task such creating presentations, something which you do do at university, but never get taught how to do it to a professional standard.

Generally, a good level of business. Some periods it was much quieter whilst others were much worse, resulting in about 5 occasions during the year where I worked later than my normal finishing time. There was never pressure to rush anything as long as you ensured that you worked well towards deadlines.

The level of responsibility for your own project work is generally good, allowing yourself to plan out when and what you do in terms of office and lab-based work. There was some degree of flexibility in terms of the direction of project, but very limited as company needs and the project managers interest generally overruling any project direction suggestions made. Beside that there was a good level of trust regarding work by yourself and planning out your day.

Given the nature of my degree and my placement there will be little translation of the skills and knowledge into my final year at university. That said, for future working life I learnt and developed many valuable skills during my year such presenting, technical report writing and networking; all of which cannot be taught in an educational context.

The office was generally very quiet and serious, with only a couple of occasional conversations. This made it a good environment for working in, but also at times made it dull and it felt in appropriate to work non-related conversations in the office. This definitely helped with productivity although did at time reduce enjoyability.

My internship within my team was reasonably well organised, but could have been better, but a change of my supervisor during my year probably didn’t help the issue. External intern tasks during the year were poorly run, with no timeline given and often infrequent reminders of the different things coming up during the year.

Generally adequite training, but at times there was definitly a "you're only here for a year attitude", meaning that training was not provided and instead there was simply an expection that someone else could do. In terms of training recieved it was good, and I never unsafe or under prepared for anything I did.

The official stance of the site I was based at is that one person every year is offered a job to return to after finishing university. The person offered this opportunity had already secured a job within the organisations, meaning no intern was “awarded” a job guarantee. Beyond that, you are welcome to apply for the graduate scheme, but there is no fast tracking to the interview stage, or any such thing, as offered by some companies.

The social group of the interns was generally good, although the group itself was small at 12, meaning the level socialising was limited. Furthermore, none of the interns went to the local university, resulting in a wasted potential social circle. There was at times poor group dynamics, likely an effect from the group itself rather than any variable that could have been controlled by the organisation.

I personally found the cost of living to be very reasonable compared to my university town, but I also go to one of the most expensive non-London univeristies. Others found rent very expensive.

Better than my university town, but also only a few very similar clubs.

A few company organinsed activities were run during the year, but generally these were limited to about once a month.