Intern Review

I felt very lucky to be a successful intern and enjoyed being thrown in the deep end at times. Also the fact that I was working for the FCO, which was constantly in the news so I could see that the work my company was doing was making a big global difference.

My colleagues made me feel very welcome and listened to the feedback I gave about lack of diversity. They advised me that I was not alone in my views and they valued my opinions. During the charity bake sale I organised, each member of my team took part and baked home made cakes for the event and helped in selling and promoting the event.

I was in two teams and had different experiences in both teams, the first team I felt very valued by my supervisor and head of department as they'd give me a lot of responsibility and also opportunities to practise skills I didn't feel confident on. The second team, I felt it was more of an adminstrative role and my supervisor did not really consider my development but focussed on tasks being completed.

I was given projects based on what I said I was interested in doing and what skills I was interested in developing. And my supervisor made sure I had enough projects lined up that I would be kept occupied but also gave opportunities to go beyond my responsibilities, such as organising a charity bake sale.

At times, I wish I was given more responsibility, however I took my initiative and requested for more.

I mentioned to my supervisor that I was not confident in public speaking, so he made me present each of my projects at the end in different ways (formal, impromptu etc) and now I feel a lot more confident. In the closing ceremony of the internship, I openly spoke in front of the many hundred other interns and did not feel nervous at all (well only a little bit)

In my first team, I really found it easy and laid back. Everyone was open and spoke in a professional manner. During team meetings, it was evident everyone got along very well and made me feel very welcome.

It was very organised, I was contacted not long after I found out that my application had been a success and had no issue with my forms or communication with HR team.

They offered a language learning course and also opportunities to practise stages of the assessment for the fast stream.

I would love to work for the FCO however it's the most difficult government department to get into.

There was a monthly social with the team and they also organised a tea and cake leavers do for me on my last week of interning with them.

Very expensive and not student friendly. However working in London meant we could easily hop on the underground and go to an affordable area.

My office is walking distance to Picadilly circus and Leicester Square.

We had a trade game organised, for us interns throughout each government department to work together to raise money for charity.