Summer Intern Review

I was grateful to have an internship whatsoever due to covid. Everyone that worked for Tesco was very extremely friendly and helpful, making us feel as though we were part of the team. The business project was interesting and not quite what i expected. The fact that it was all virtual did make it a bit less enjoyable than i think it would have otherwise been. We did try and run some virtual social activities which helped.

As i said all the employees I interacted with were really kind and helpful. They didn't make us feel like we were an inconvenience at all which is what i expected. They constantly reassured us and were genuinely interested to hear our point of view as younger people from different parts of society. All of the other interns were also really nice and we worked together well, which was definitely encouraged by the Tesco staff.

In terms of the overall internship, my line manager was extremely helpful. Any time I had an issue I was able to message him and he would always respond really quickly. For my business project, I had a similar experience. Our project lead was always on hand and made himself available to us whenever we needed him. I received lots of constructive feedback from him throughout which I found very beneficial and will definitely use in the future.

The degree to which I was busy definitely fluctuated throughout the six weeks. The first week was relatively slow-paced which was to be expected. The next couple of weeks became pretty busy and I was working about 6-7 hours a day. However during weeks 5 and 6 the pace definitely dropped. I found myself only doing an hour or 2 a day as I had completed my final presentation and had few new learning sessions scheduled.

I feel as though this question is not most suited to a virtual internship. Due to its nature, I had no true responsibility in the typical sense. I was not in charge of anything or making decisions that would have a real world impact. Nevertheless, I had some responsibility in other ways. It was my responsibility tom attend sessions and get out of them what i deemed to be important. We were also given a free reign for our presentation, designing it how we saw fit.

I think the main skills I have developed are those related to working online. It is clear that in the future, working remotely is going to be a staple for many people so I think it is good that i have been able to develop skills such as using MS teams, delivering virtual presentations, as well as virtual networking. A lot of the sessions were also geared towards well being and leadership which will definitely be of benefit to my professional progression.

Considering the circumstances surrounding the internship I think it was extremely well organised. This is the first time Tesco has run an internship online and I think they managed to deliver it very well. The six weeks had a clear structure which was presented to us at the before it started so we knew what to expect. There were almost no technical issues which was a big surprise. Overall I was very impressed by how well it flowed.

We did do quite a few development sessions which I found quite helpful. We did training on resilience, leadership, and presenting which will all be of benefit in the future. I particularly like the resilience training which taught me a lot about positivity. There maybe wasn't quite as much training as I had expected there would be but again i think this comes down to the constraints of trying to deliver an internship virtually so i don't mind.

I think this is hard to say. I personally have not heard anything other than we will be able to go straight to the final stage of the grad scheme application process. I am aware of someone of the internship who has been offered a place on a grad scheme, as well as the tech interns who have been told they will get places on a grad scheme. Personally however, I do not think I will be offered anything. This does not surprise me given it was a virtual internship.

We all tried our best but this is definitely where the internship faltered. I'm not sure what the answer is but it's certainly not easy trying to get 50 random people to socialise over the internet. We tried things such as coffee roulette to try and meet new people but ultimately I had most social interaction with people in my project groups. After we finished working, we would often stay on the calls for a while and chat which was nice so i feel as though i got to know them well. We also organised a meet in a city for drinks one night so i was able to meet a few people in real life. Ultimately though there was no real social scene.

Stayed at home for most of it.