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 enjoyed getting to know the company, looking behind the scenes. It was very interesting to learn about the processes and approaches to everyone's tasks. I got a lot of impressions about the work my managers are doing and was given some responsibility. Everybody was very inlcusive and so helpful, whenever someone was in need of support.
I generally feel valued as, every now and again, my manager or colleagues thanked me for the work I was doing and told me I did a good job. They also expressed feeling sad about me leaving and appreciated the work I was doing for them. Sometimes I feel there was a bit of a lack of long-term management, so the development within the placement was lower as it could have been.
My manager and everyone else in my department, as well as other departments was always very helpful and ready to give guidance and support when asked for it. You never feel "left alone" as, even if you manager is out of the office, other people in the department are ready to help. If you don't ask for more guidance, though, managers don't always recognize if more guidance would be useful.
My weeks varied quite a lot. During busy periods, when we had events or big campaines, I was very busy but the workload was still managabel within the normal daily 8 hours (maybe a little bit more here and there). On other periods, when there was less going on, some days tended to be slightly "boring"
A medium level of responsibility. I would have liked to take on more responsibility, but there were hardly any projects or type of work where that would have been possible, appropriate or intersting. It takes some time at the beginning of your placement until you know what your doing and by the time you do and would be ready to take on more responsibility, the placement is already almost over and there is not enough time left to start a big project. I was responsible for single tasks but never for one big thing start to finish.
I think it is mostly the general impressions I got from the business and how businesses work and are run. Seeing my managers and how they approach and do their work also showed me a lot. However, I don't feel there were any skills in particular that were increased. It is more the experience you get, that you are able to compare it with previous experiences and figure out what to look out for, what you want, what type of work is appropriat etc.
The Company
Everybody is very nice, supportive and kind to each other. I thought it was a bit of a shame, that there didn't seem to be a real "team" atmosphere. People get on with their work and the only teams there are are the mangagers and their interns. There is a lack of feeling of community and working together. There are no teambuilding activities outside of working hours such as in other departments.
Due to the fact that I had a handover with my previous intern, the onboarding went quite smoothly and it was great to be introduced from an interns perspective. However, leaving the whole handover process to the intern is, I feel, not completely appropriate. It would have been nice to also have part of the onboarding with the manager as some of the previous interns are getting "really ready to leave". I feel for the intership itself, there should have been more of a development plan, rather than just seeing how things go. I don't feel like my responisbilities have increased throughout the internship.
We were given the opportunities, just like everyone else in the company, to participate at free learing sessions (such as developing change, giving feedback), that were voluntary and face to face or virtual . We also had sessions such as "meet the CEO", that we could take part it. Apart from that, I don't think there was any particular personal development opportunities for interns.
Subsidised Canteen
If the company and your job is one you are passionate about and enjoying, I feel there are a lot of opportunities. There is also the will to develop talent further, but sometimes that is hindered and unnecessarily made complicated by policies of the mother company. For me, personally, I am not completely convinced that I would like to work for this company in the long run. Apart from an interesting job which you might get, there are a lot of other factors such as working arragements, management etc.
The Culture
Yes! As there were a lot of interns at the company (between 80 and 100), there was lots of opportuntiy to connect socially. The atmosphere was great and there were always things, such as trips or going out together, going on that the interns organised amongst them. Having that community was a very important part of the intership!
The cost of living was absolutly within normal rates. My location was quite convenient for socialising with a lot of venues (bowling, cinema, restaurants) within a short walking distance. In terms of normal shops, the problem was, that most of them were closed by the time I got of work. The costs were slightly higher than in my home country but not massively.
It's not my type of thing but what I hear from other interns, there is a lot of opportunity (venue wise and people wise).
I was very furtunate to find a very good friend here that I houseshared with and we got an unlimited membership for the cinema across the street. These are some of by best nights of the week. Also going out with other interns, going to the trampoline park, going to the beach etc. is always fun and there is plenty of opportunity.
Details
South West
November 2019