Summer Intern - Human Resources Review

I was given a real variety of interesting work during the ten weeks I was at Rolls-Royce. I felt valued enough to be trusted with real responsibility right from the start, which was very encouraging.

The atmosphere in my office was fantastic, and I felt as if I could be myself around my colleagues. I was included in team activities right from the start (for example, lunches, nights out, team meetings) and I even got cards for my birthday! I hope to stay in touch with my colleagues here as they really did make my time here special.

I had five supervisors in total (although this is rare for interns, so my experience might not apply to everyone!), and they all made a good effort to stay in touch with me. I completed my internship during holiday season, so there were some clashes with my supervisors' holidays and when I could have done with their support, but this was obviously inevitable and nobody's fault. The only (minor!) gripe I would have would be that it could have been nice to be sat down at the start of my internship and had the structure of the office explained to me - that is, everyone's roles, what everyone was in charge of, important upcoming changes to the hierarchy of the office etc - just so I knew exactly who to go to with key questions right from the start.

At the start of my internship there were times when I had very little to do as I was waiting for someone to get back to me with information I needed to progress. However, the majority of the time I had more than enough to do and really felt like I was engaging with the work. I can't think of anything worse than clock-watching and counting down the hours until hometime in my future job, so coming to work knowing I had a lot to get on with was really encouraging.

I feel like I was given sufficient responsibility during my placement, but there was also ample opportunity to take on more (for example, completing side-projects and helping out with the day-to-day activities of the office).

I definitely think this internship has helped me develop key skills which will help me in the future. I feel as if I've really improved my communication skills, confidence, organisation skills and teamwork abilities, which will hopefully help me out in whichever career I decide on.

The atmosphere in my office was great - a good balance between working hard and socialising. Everyone seemed very committed to their work but also willing to have a chat, and I felt comfortable asking questions (even if they were sometimes fairly ridiculous).

I had no problems with the organisation of the internship.

There is a substantial resource of online training for interns, ranging from soft skills to programming to engineering courses. I was also booked onto a classroom-based training course mid-way through my placement.

While I did really enjoy my internship, this is my first proper piece of work experience. I could see myself being very happy here, but as I have two more years left of university I think it would be a mistake to not explore other options before I graduate, instead of launching straight into the first thing I enjoy. Saying that, the graduate scheme looks fantastic - a career in Rolls-Royce is definitely a (very!) likely option, but I'm not dead-set quite yet.