This review was submitted over 4 years ago, so some of the information it contains may no longer be relevant.
Rating
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The Role
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The Company
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The Culture
- 1. To what extent did you enjoy your work placement or internship?
- 2. To what extent did you feel valued by your colleagues?
- 3. To what extent were you given support and guidance by management/your supervisor(s)?
- 4. How busy were you on a daily basis?
- 5. How much responsibility were you given during your placement?
- 6. To what extent did/will the skills you developed, and training you received, assist you in your degree studies and beyond?
- 7. What was the general atmosphere in your office?
- 8. How well organised was the overall work placement or internship set up?
- 9. In terms of personal training and development, to what extent did the company or firm invest in you?
- 10. What were the perks on your work placement?
- 11. How appealing are future employment prospects within the organisation?
- 12. Was there a good social scene amongst any fellow placement students/colleagues?
- 13. What was the cost of living and socialising in the area you worked in?
- 14. What was the Nightlife like in the area you worked?
- 15. Were there many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work?
The Role
I massively enjoyed my experience and felt more and more comfortable as I learned about and adapted to my specific work environment.
I felt very much valued by my colleagues and I was really excited by how much independence I was allowed. It felt great to often be trusted and left to my own devices whilst also always knowing that help was close at hand.
I was given plenty of support from two analysts, who managed me on various tasks and were always happy to answer questions, however trivial. Of course, during the summer months colleagues tended to be on holiday, which meant that I could't build as strong a relationship with supervisors as I otherwise might have done.
I was always very happy with how busy I was kept at work. More often than not, I knew exactly what my task was for the day as I arrived in the morning and I really enjoyed being in near-total control of my schedule. Although things were slow at start due to admin and training concerns, I always felt like I was contributing productively to the project.
I was given plenty of responsibility which really pleased me. I did two mini-projects on my own end-to-end and, after one of them, held several calls with an offshore team to teach them what I had done. I never imagined I would have so much independence and it really helped me develop skills and confidence.
I've learnt a great deal about Excel which will help me both at university (with measuring tasks) and no doubt will come in handy in my career. I also did a lot of German translating whilst I was on my placement and, since I study German, this should feed back into my degree nicely, keeping my language skills fresh.
The Company
Very friendly and pleasent. Everyone I asked was always happy to have a coffee with me and chat about their work and career, no matter how senior they were. We had a team dinner, party and a football match during my time which were all really condusive to general bonding.
It was, on the whole, well organised and I always knew where I should be and what I should be doing. Perhaps, the only remark I would make here of a negative nature is that we all found out the actual geographical locations of our placements on the Thursday before we all started on the Monday. More notice would have helped to reduce stress and help planning and preparation.
During our first week, the firm invested a great deal in us all, teaching us technical and personal skills. The firm always wanted to balance fun with benefit and this worked well.
Very appealing as the firm offers such a fantastic variety of opportunity and placements.
The Culture
Yes, I've made a number of friends amongst the other interns and we have often met up in London to do various things. It was a nice way to get out of the office and discuss things other than work.
I lived at home so the cost of living did therefore not apply to me, really. London can be reasonable if you pick out the right place, but, basically, it was pretty expensive.
Great fun, quite affordable and varied.
Yes - football, frisbee, pub quizzes and dinners.
Details
Internship (1 Month+)
London
August 2014