Intern- Summer Diversity Internship Programme Review

I really enjoyed my internship. I anticipated that it would be good beforehand, but it far exceeded my expectations.

It took a while to feel part of the team, but that worked well for me because I prefer to get to know people over a period of time. My colleagues were kind and helpful, but not overly friendly. By the end of my internship, however, I felt like the genuinely cared about me and that was lovely.

My manager gave structure to the work I was doing, but was not overseeing it. I had another supervisor for one of my projects and we mostly communicated by e-mail. I am a self-starter and so didn't find this lack of supervision an issue, but if a person needed more guidance then they may have found it difficult.

I was very busy nearly every day. I looked for additional work when I had less to do, however, so it would probably be possible to not be as busy if you were less motivated.

I had a lot of responsibility from the outset, although it increased with time. I ended up being the sole-representative at meetings with various groups of stakeholders which was a lot of responsibility.

The skills I developed have already helped me in university- to deliver at pace when needed and to have greater confidence in my abilities academically and professionally. I expect that the skills I developed will be priceless when it comes to working in a professional environment again.

The general environment was very intense. I was working in an office which had a lot of responsibility and there were many issues relating to PR that came up whilst I was working there so that added pressure to the general environment. People would ask each other if they wanted a coffee if they were heading to the coffee shop downstairs, which was nice. We also had a floor party to celebrate a special event which made the atmosphere nicer for a while.

Very well organised. I was in a different location to the majority of the other interns which made the organisation slightly more difficult for meas I had to travel a distance to get to events. I always knew who to speak to if I had any queries. The central management team for the internship were very helpful.

I went to a number of seminars for my own academic interests which were put on by the company. They also told me I could take time to learn from the intranet and other learning systems available if I wanted to.

It would be very appealing to work at this organisation in the future. The graduate programme applications opens next year and my line manager has said she will help me with the application.

There was very little social time, we were all very busy in my office. We had one meal out together to celebrate one colleague's move into a new team.

I didn't live or socialise in the area I worked in. I commuted 50 miles each way.

I didn't go out in the area I worked, however from what I saw there was nothing there.

There were events run by the internship programme, but these were nearly all based over 400 miles from where I was based.