Infrastructure Design - Client Solutions team Review

The internship was very well organised with a large emphasis on networking events and team building exercises, this made it very enjoyable and a good opportunity to make new friends. At times the day to day work wasn't particularly enjoyable but it was rewarding and as an intern you can't expect to be doing exciting things the whole time.

The team I was placed in wasn't particularly well suited for interns. Most of my colleagues were quite senior and had worked in the business for many years. However they did go out of their way to make me feel welcome and were always ready to assist with any problems I faced.

My line manager gave me clear direction and objectives at the start of the internship. After this I didn't have a lot of day to day interaction with him but this suits the way I like to work (i.e. finding things out for myself and getting on with it). The internship exposed us to senior members of the business with weekly masterclasses on different areas of the business. This was interesting and many of them had useful careers advice.

At the start I was quite bored. This is because the team I was placed in was quite technical and I lacked the knowledge so had to do a lot reading on the company website. However this was necessary and useful as I now know a huge amount more about IT. After these first few weeks I found myself with a good amount of work to do and at times with slightly too much work but this was good as it gave me motivation to work harder to get everything finished.

I was given clear direction of my objectives at the start but after that I was responsible for the delivery of my project.

The technical skills I've learnt about IT will really benefit me if up with a career in that industry. I've also learnt about things such as project management, collaborative working and documenting work which will really benefit the final year of my degree of which 50% is based on a group project.

The office is based out of town in part of an old stately home. This means there are great sports facilites and really good canteen which everyone has to eat in. However the office can be quite quiet at times.

The HR leaders organised the internship extremely well. From the first day which was based on team building with the other interns to social events such as dragon boating on the Thames and dinners out. Once actually getting down to work it seemed as though my line manager could have been slightly better prepared for me, possibly with a bit more structure of things to do for my first few days. One other issue I found was that I was not permitted to take any days holiday.

Most of the development I did was on the job. I also did some online training and improved some skills by doing things like presentations.

I am hopeful to be offered a job however I have to complete a further assessment centre. They have given us information about the Graduate scheme which sounds great but some of the information has been a bit misleading.

I've made lots of friends, mainly stemming from the team building exercise on the first day. We normally have lunch together and often go for drinks after work.

I was lucky in that I could live at my student house so didn't have to pay any extra rent but some people had to pay quite a lot to rent a room for the summer.

The office is just outside Knutsford which is a small town and has not much going on. I commuted from Manchester (40mins) which is obviously very vibrant.

There are sports facilites on site and as part of the internship we went dragon boat racing on one of the docks near Canary Wharf