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
Really enjoyed all the new skills I learned but struggled with being one of the only interns at the site, especially living alone, away from my friends and family.
I feel like my role and the job I did was essential but I wasn’t validated by managers very often, I had to seek that out deliberately. However, on a social level, everyone was always very kind and supportive.
My direct line manager didn’t provide much support and organised talks with the intern manager felt quite unpersonalised. However, I found amazing support through some other colleagues and especially HR.
Initially, my work was extremely sparse but quite difficult, so I was bored quite a lot with some very stressful periods. As I gained more responsibilities I was busy every day.
I was very quickly entrusted with a very high level of responsibility. Within a few weeks I had almost full responsibility of each of the tasks that I did, all with great importance to the department.
I learned fantastic skills for my future career and really valued the extra training sessions. Other than soft skills such as time management, I have very little useful skills for my degree as my job wasn’t related to my studies.
The Company
Specifically in my department, it was a very quiet atmosphere on a usual day. Some days, for example around Christmas, were more fun, yet in general it was quite dull unless I moved around the factory and talked to other colleagues.
The internship programme was great and it was the organised training days, assessment centres and career fairs that I enjoyed the most whilst doing my placement.
The personal training I received, I actually value more than the skills I leaned on the job. There could have been even more of these throughout the year!
Working from home
It was very difficult to secure any kind of graduate role within the company. I will have to apply like anyone else, although I would have an advantage over someone who didn’t do a internship with the company.
The Culture
I had almost no socialisation with the other placement students at my site, but when I got to meet up with interns from other UK sites, it was great.
Cheaper than when living at university but still quite a high price compared to other areas of the country.
I almost never went out, so I can’t say much about this one.
There were some opportunities but more geared to pearls the older demographic that most of my colleagues fit into.
Details
Placement (10 Months+)
Logistics and Operations, Purchasing and Supply
South East
October 2019