Foundations Intern Review

I had a really great time, the people I was working with went out of their way to make me feel welcome, to make sure that I understood the role, their department and that I was happy with the work I was doing.

You can really see the difference having an intern makes to them, they always took my input seriously and encouraged me to strech myself and explore my ideas further as well as helping me to put together business cases for my best ideas and giving really useful constructive feedback.

They were fantastic - if I ever had a problem all I had to do was ask and they would be there to help me. Obviously it was important that I was able to work independently but they didn't expect me to be able to walk in and start with no intoduction or guidance. In fact Cancer Research UK put a lot of emphasis on making sure you are properly introduced to the charity, the department, your team and the teams around you that are or couldbe relevant to your role. I also had weekly 1:1s with my intern manager to talk about the work I'd been doing as well as a mid and end internship review where the team were able to give feedback on my work through my intern manager and I was able to give them feedback about the team, the internship and the work I was doing.

The work was always varied and interesting and if I had too much or too little my intern manager was able to redistribute the work load so that everyone was happy. Because my role was largely based around event planning the workload fluctuated according to what events were coming up (I contributed work to 3 events during my time at Cancer Research UK). The couple of weeks preceeding an event were very busy getting all the loose ends together where as the gaps in between events were a little quieter. I was never bored however as we always tried to get everything done as far in advance as possible and I was able to take on new projects from other staff members that were not event related.

Obviously they did not just hand over responsiblity to me but over the course of the internship my responsibilities within the team grew as I proved myself capable and willing to work. I was also able to take on responsiblity outside of the intern role by getting involed in the intern fundraising projects.

I have learnt so much that I will carry forward into the rest of my life, not just business skills but also I have learnt a lot about myself, how I like to work and how best to approach tasks.

The office is very big and open plan but rather than creating an oppressive silence (which I have seen in some offices) it's actualy very warm and friendly. Everybody is keen to talk to you and if you show a bit of interest in what they are doing they are happy to explain/let you get involved. There is also normally a staff fundraising event going on at some point each week - cake sales, office olympics, etc.

The internship scheme is very well organised, I had two full day inductions to the company, a series of mini inductions to the different teams that I woud be working with and a 1:1 induction with most of the members of the team I was working in so that I could get to grips with their work and so I could support them properly. I had an intern manager that spent a lot of time making sure that I understood my role and that I was happy wtth what I was doing. Every week I had a 1:1 with my manager going over workload, objectives and the coming week and I had a mid internship and end of internship review where I got feedback, was able to feedback to the team and I was able to talk over my personal objectives and how best to achieve them.

My intern manager made a point of ensuring that I had personal objectives to work on - my list, for example, included public speaking practice, project planning and negotiating, all of which I was able to work on over the 12 weeks. Cancer Research UK also organised a day long CV and interview session where they helped us with writing our CVs and coverletters as well as going over interview techniques and preparing for difficult questions.

Very appealing, I woudl love to work for them but there are not many job openings and it is a very competative labour market.

There was always something happening with the interns at lunch or after work and if you felt like you wanted to do something different it was pretty easy for you to find people willing ot go with you. I was working with a really fun team so I got to socialise with them quite a few times over the internship but this wasn't the case with every team.

It depends on where you go, there' s weatherspoons just around the corner from the office but equally close are some really nice cocktail bars which are obviously more expensive. Think central London pricing in general.

Pretty good, Upper Street and Essex Road have some lively places and the office is close enough to Shoreditch for a shared taxi to be cheap as chips!

There is so much that you can do and that you are encouraged to do outside of work. The office holds regular "Passion Talks" where different member of the organization talk to you about thier work and why they work for Cancer Reserch UK, I got to hear a scientist talk about some promising reseach into "Mics". I was also lucky enough to get to take part in a film shoot for a website banner, in organising and running a pub quiz and in the main intern fundraiser. There are also weekly zumba classes, circuit training and (I believe) 5 aside football avaliable for those who are interested.