Intern - Communications and External Affairs Review

My internship at bp was highly enjoyable. I was placed within a really great team and felt really welcomed at the company. The work was interesting and I was giving a good level of responsibility and ownership of the tasks I took on. Everyone I met over the course of the internship was happy to have 1 to 1 chat with me and help me learn more about the business. I felt very welcome throughout.

My colleagues in the teams I worked in made me feel valued by giving me meaningful work that had a real impact on the business. The took my input and questions seriously and welcomed any new ideas or suggestions I had. I was welcomed into daily team meetings which made me feel part of the team, rather than just a temporary intern and despite my lack of experience, the team really valued my point of view.

I had two supervisors over the course of my internship - my line manager and my buddy. Both were really supportive and gave me lots of guidance throughout. I had daily check in meetings with my buddy and was always able to ask her any questions I had and let her know what my workload was like. Any issues that I had during the internship they both helped me to solve, and they also really focused on helping me meet the objectives I set myself at the start of the internship.

I had a good balance of meetings to time to work on my projects. As my internship had to be shortened slightly in duration due to being virtual instead of in the office, the last couple of weeks were very busy as there was a lot that had to be fit in before the end. However, at no point did I feel unable to cope and in the other weeks I felt the balance of where I spent my time was very enjoyable and manageable.

During my internship, I was given lots of responsibility for the tasks I was assigned. I worked with other team members on most of my day to day tasks but was also entrusted with the responsibility and ability to take the lead on other tasks as time went on. I was also given the opportunity to take on more responsibility in the form of intern run societies and events. I felt like my level of responsibility for the tasks I lead was recognised and supported by my team.

I think that the skills I developed on the internship will be extremely useful when I return to university for my final year, and will particularly help once I enter the world of work as I grad. One skill I worked on in particular, and got a lot of support and feedback on was my writing ability, and I feel like this skill will be very useful in university work next year and beyond that.

Unfortunately, due to the coronavirus, my internship was conducted wholly online. However, I still felt a great working atmosphere even in my virtual working environment. The team made a good effort to set up social calls as well as work meetings and this contributed to making the experience feel well rounded, as I had been a bit apprehensive about this before doing a virtual work internship. Overall, the atmosphere was very welcoming and warm for me.

The bp internship was exceedingly well organised. The internship had a clear structure, with objectives being set at the beginning, a mid term and final assessment review. The structure was made clear to all the interns at the start of the internship, and we received support from the HR team throughout. We had regular intern check in calls with HR to remind us of the next steps in the process and the organisation was flawless.

bp and my team, in particular, put a lot of time and energy into helping me meet the objectives for development that I had set myself at the beginning of the internship. All interns were given access to an online platform where we could take online courses in to develop specific skills, and we were also invited regularly to talks from people in different roles across the business. We were also part of several intern workshops, including a very valuable session on presentation skills.

The overall experience at bp was a very good one. I felt very welcomed by my team and would love to have the opportunity to come back as a graduate. All interns on the scheme were assessed for graduate roles and there were plenty of roles available for interns to come back as graduates in the areas that interested them. The assessment process for graduate roles was clear and well structured and overall the employment prospects were very good.

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As interns, we were given many opportunities to volunteer to run or take responsibility for organising extra socials outside of work. Over the 6 weeks, we had "intern family" socials once a week, plus additional social activities organised by the intern cohort themselves. Despite the internship being virtual in nature, I felt that the opportunities for events and activities outside of work were excellent and very well thought out. It would perhaps have been nice to have more activities involving the graduates .