Market Intelligence Assistant Review

The placement was exceptionally well planned for a first time offering, and I particularly liked that they chose me a role based on my skills and interests rather than offering specific positions- like many people, I had no idea what I wanted to do so seeing what other people felt I might be suited to was very interesting. The work was interesting and varied and challenged me continually, making sure I learn a huge amount which could not have been easily taught by lecturers.

The vast majority of staff were incredibly supportive of us and we had great help from the scheme sponsor, from members of our own teams and from mentors from the graduate population at Zurich.

My own manager was extremely helpful and knowledgeable on his subject, and was clearly interested in having a placement student- none of the managers at Zurich were forced to take an intern and those that wanted one had to prove they had the work to give them for the full six months. When giving placements out, one of the key factors taken into account by the scheme sponsor was the quality of line management as assessed by existing employees in Zurich's satisfaction survey.

As with most jobs, some days were busier than others, but the nature of work allowed us to have ongoing tasks which could fill gaps in schedules if we had little to do, or to ease off on them if there were large volumes of ad hoc tasks.

My responsibility increased throughout the placement as I became more experienced in the role, which was ideal- I wouldn't want to be put in charge of something crucial on the first day! By the end though I was trusted to create and analyse large volumes of data myself, and to give training to older, more experienced employees from other areas on my specialist subjects.

There were a number of training courses during the internship, which were clearly aimed on developing our own skills, even though Zurich wouldn't get the full value of these. This included a course entitled "understanding your personal brand" which covered understanding how other percieve your actions and attitudes and how to convey a positive image, which was extremely interesting.

I sat with my team on a daily basis and there was a friendly but professional atmosphere. People spoke about their personal lives and chatted away, but not to the detriment of getting work done.

Considering it was the first time it had been offered, the internship scheme was exceptionally well organised. At the end of scheme presentation we were asked for ways to improve it, which is great as it shows that they want to make it even better in the future.

As mentioned earlier, there was a considerable amount of training which was non-task specific, mostly the kind of courses which were given to their newly recruited graduates. Despite the fact that Zurich would not have us working full time for them for at least two and a half years after leaving the internship, they were happy to invest time and effort in our training.

Whilst nothing is confirmed, one of the main reasons for offering the internships on Zurich's side is as an extended interview for their graduate scheme, and if we were successful, there is a strong chance of being accepted on to the scheme subject to finishing a satisfactory degree.

There were six placement students from Bath taken on at the same time, and a few from other Universities on privately arrranged schemes. There are also a large number of graduates in Zurich and it was generally they who would organize nights out etc. The company did organise various charity evens such as Quizzes, Wine tasting sessions and football tournaments, and each individual department has a Christmas Party which is organised within the department.

Swindon is very cheap to live by the standards of the South West (albeit for good reason)

Considering it is not a major town, Swindon has a large amount of facilities, but the lack of a University means that nights out are often aimed at College students.

Zurich is closely involved in the local community and charities and every employee spends one day a year doing voluntary work on company time, and has opportunities to get involved in others.