Business Management Intern Review

I throuoghly enjoyed my placement at Travelport. My team were amazing! I was lucky to be part of such a large intern cohort (28 of us in total) which meant that I built many friendships within the intern community. Besides from our everyday tasks, we were able to work on many intern initiatives, such as raising money for charity through the CSR programme. This was great fun as it meant we had to work as big team to achieve our goals.

All of my colleagues at Travelport treated me just like any other Travelport employee. I was never once singled out and treated like an intern by colleagues. This was great because it meant that I felt valued by everyone at Travelport. I felt that the work I carried out was incredibly valuable to the business and I never once thought the tasks I had to do were unnecessary. All of this made my experience at Travelport so great and enjoyable.

My manager was always there for me whether I had a question on something I was working on or if I needed extra training on Excel/Powerpoint. I never once was made to feel like I was hounding them. I would have regular 1:1 meetings. Also, due to my manager and I working on many items together, it meant that I received lots of support/ training from them directly which was really useful for me as it added to my overall development at Travelport.

My role was project based which meant I went through times of being super busy and other times being quieter. For example when I was really busy I would have a deadline for a Townhall presentation. This was challenging in a good way as it pushed me outside my comfort zone to develop my skills. However, when I had less work on I would use my time wisely by working on University assignments that I had to complete throughout my placement year.

I was given a large amount of responsibility throughout my entire placement. Within my first two weeks at Travelport I was given the opportunity to film approx 12 colleagues and then further edit the video. This video was shown on a video call globally to around 1,500 colleagues. This was a huge responsibility and I was trusted completely as I was the only person who worked on this video. As well as the video, I also had to create newsletters that would go out to my department monthly.

I developed professionally throughout the placement by gaining more advanced skills in Excel/PowerPoint/Time management and many more. All these skills will help me perform even better in my final year of university by being more organised and efficient. I also have developed on a personal level by gaining more confidence in my work and in myself. Confidence is such an important attribute to have and I feel that by completing my placement at Travelport I will have so much more confidence than before when applying for future roles.

The office atmosphere was relaxed and very chatty. There was a great vibe within the office with many people going over to other peoples desks and having a chat. Not many people would be walking around in suits! This meant people could wear want they want along as it was fairly smart and respectable. Also, every Friday there was 'Dress down Friday' which meant you could dress really causal in the office (jeans and trainers etc).

The internship was very well structured. Our first day at Travelport we had the structure of the year explained to us. As the internship had many intern only initiatives such as CSR goals, charity work, Make Your Mark day (one day volunteering at a charity during the week) and STG goals We would have regular meetings for support and guidance on how to reach our CSR goals. Also, once a month there would be an intern check in to see how we are all getting on with our roles and if we have any problems etc.

I never completed any off site training for my role. However, there were many online courses available for free on the employees homepage, such as, Excel and PowerPoint courses. I completed a several of these courses to help further strengthen my skills. However, there was training for the interns as a group. Once a month we would have a course in things like public speaking, appraisals, setting achievable goals for ourselves and many more. The course I found the most valuable was the public speaking one!

I would say employment prospects are quite high. If you perform really well throughout your placement and enjoy your placement and want to go back. You would also have to hope that your team has the budget and vacancy available for you to come back after University. However, if throughout your placement you worked with another team in anyway you might find the could also offer you a job if they are impressed with whatever work you carried out for them

Yes, as there were 28 interns there would always be something going on once every two weeks within the intern community. Lots of interns would go out for dinner together and drinks. However, personally due to myself driving into work each day I only managed to attend a few social events. But the interns that relocated to Langely and lived together they would always be out doing things with many of the other interns such as restaurants and pubs.