HR Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of my placement with Phase Eight. I learnt a great deal that I feel I have been able to adapt to my work at University.

Everyone on the HR team immediately made me feel extremely welcome right up until the day I left. I wasn't treated as an intern, I felt as though I was a permenant member of staff. This helped me become confident when asking questions about things I was uncertain about, etc.

I was the first HR intern at Phase Eight and therefore was guided and supported a lot at the beginning whilst I was getting to grips with the work and the business. I had regular meetings with my line manager to discuss anything I had a problem with or wanted to get involved in. I felt comfortable asking any of the team questions about things that I had problems with.

The workload I had varied throughout the day and throughout the year depending on the needs of the business. I never found the work too much and I felt it was just enough to keep me on my toes and satisfied. If I ever did feel I had too much then my colleagues would be all too happy to help.

I was given the task of recruiting all Sales Consultants and Supervisors across the UK. This in itself was a huge responsibility but as well as this I was given other tasks such as sending out new contracts, eligibility to work and holding the assessment centre for the interns for 2012/13. I didn't feel that anyone was scared to give me work to do or hesitated about me doing it which built up the trust relationships within the team.

I cannot express how much I developed in my time at Phase Eight. I have learnt skills that have already helped me in my final year at University and I am sure this knowledge will go on to be invaluable for the rest of my career in HR.

The atmosphere in the office is great as it is a small head office at Phase Eight. There are only approximately 80 employees and therefore you really get to know everyone quite well and quite quickly.

I was the first HR Intern at Phase Eight but this did not affect the organisation of my internship. My line manager and team had everything sorted for me and I had an induction plan for my first 2 weeks which let me know what I was to expect before I joined. I visited 2 stores around the London area in my first week and attended a managers meeting. Although this threw me in the deep end it benefited me in the long run as I got to know all the different areas I would be working with. I had regular meetings with my line manager and I was able to discuss then if I was having any problems or issues with my work.

I didn't get a huge amount of training on the job but I was exposed to it on an everyday basis as a few new projects were set up for the Assistant Managers and Managers of stores and concessions. However as said before my personal and professional skills have developed enormously thanks to Phase Eight, I have been trained to use different computer programs that hopefully I will be able to take forward to my next job.

I would definitely go back to Phase Eight after graduating from University. I like the idea of a small team so that you can all work together and help one another with different tasks. I also enjoyed the atmosphere in the office as you got to know everyone.

As the Head Office is small, there is no need for a huge amount of interns. Therefore there were only 3 interns in the office whilst I was on placement there. However, there was a person in charge of arranging socials and when we had these we had a lot of fun. There were socials to archery, go karting, pub quizzes, etc.

I commuted from Hertfordshire to the office which was a fairly long journey every morning and evening. I did this because the rent in London is so expensive and I wanted to save my money for my final year at University. Obviously the travel expenses do add up but I preferred doing this than renting in the capital.

The nightlife seemed good, there were a few pubs around the Parsons Green area and Fulham and Chelsea were only a short walk away where there are some well known clubs and bars.

Yes - as said before there were socials which occurred about once a month. These were great opportunities to meet new people that perhaps you don't get to see or speak to on an every day basis around the office.