Risk Analyst Intern Review

My year on placement has given me invaluable workplace experience, enhanced my CV and allowed me to develop a professional network as well as some good friends. I fully enjoyed my year on placement and couldnt recommend it enough.

The people were one of the key factors that made my placement so enjoyable, i always felt part of a team and that my work was valued.

All my colleagues were always more than happy to help with anything and regular 1:1's with structured goals helped with guidance throughout the year.

A difficult one to rate out of 10, i was always busy but never felt snowed under or like i had too much to do as i worked closely with my line manager to prioritise work and push back on low priority tasks.

My placement gave me real responsiblity such as peer reviewing others work technically and maintaing output standards of my work. The level of responsiblity you are given at GE is not limited because you are an intern, if you show you are capable of dealing with it you are given it.

The overall experience will help with my application of economic theory into real life situations and my development of technical skills such as SAS and Excel will be extremely useful for future analytical roles.

The office atmosphere was very good, eveyone was approachable (even senior staff such as the CRO) and things such as a friday afternoon quiz and bi-weekly department review help to promote a one team culture.

The placement was well structured with a 5 week introduction plan outlined at the start after which work depended on business priorities. Monthly meetings held by the intern representative and attended by all the interns within the business helped to unsure continued development throughout the year.

GE invest a lot in the training and development of its employees and during my year i was able to attend formal courses for presentation skills, influencing skills, facilitation skills and personal brand as well as a number of online courses for technical skills such as SAS, Excel and scorecards.

I thouroughly enjoyed my placement along with the work i was involved in and would relish the opportunity to work at GE again in the future.

The social scene amongst both placement students and colleagues was good, with drinks in Watford occurring regularly as well as a number of activities throughout the year such as laser tag, sailing and karaoke.

I found that comparable to the north of the country the cost of living was slightly more, having said that i also found that the intern wage was sufficient to cover my living and socialising costs.

Watford is good for a night out and has a number of clubs and bars in the middle of town but probably the best thing about Watford is how close it is to London, with the train only taking around 20 mins.

Yes there were a number of sporting opportunities, i was involved in activities such as a hockey tournament and a triathlon and there were also non sporting opportunities available such as volunteering.