Customer Contact Intern Review

I enjoyed the company culture and the employees - the work on my placement though I did not always find challenging enough.

I felt valued by the majority of them, however there is still an attitude that 'oh, as an intern they can pick up this admin task.' In saying that, a lot of those admin tasks meant I had exposure to other areas of the business. I definitely went out of my way to socialise and network and this stood me in good stead.

I had a lot of upheaval with management in my time due to company restructure - so some were more proactive at support than others. In saying this, I found the whole company to be very supportive and give guidance. A team member supported me the most during my time, with the blessing of my managers.

This was very much dependent on who else was in that day. As I was project based, this meant I would rely on others to give me work or it would be dependent on where the project was up to. I would say I was reasonably busy for 75-80% of my placement.

I was given a lot of responsibility on some projects, and not much on others. However, I was deifnitely a driver behind the scenes within my team and I did feel my input was valued.

I think that the company has got it right in terms of work life balance - I felt that the culture meant you were able to explore other opportunities, and the events I was invited to really taught me about how to network, which is obviously a skill very beneficial to life.

The general atmosphere was very relaxed - there is no formal dress code in Virgin Media and so most people wear jeans. As the office I was based in was also a call centre, it had a very different vibe than Head Office. Overall, everyone is very friendly and there is a lot of laughter.

The internship for me was not very well organised - I was the first one to do the role and there was also a restructure in the department. This was not to say the wider programme was disorganised, but certainly my internship was. However, there is a definite support network provided by the company which I found to be useful.

The department I was in provide wider training of which I was always invited, and there is also a lot of online resources provided by Virgin Media for me to take advantage of at my leisure. Over the year, I attended three 2 day events of training, plus the online resources.

There is defintiely placements out there, although they do not always match up to the internship schemes. This is something I believe is being looked into though. By completing a placement, there are also full time job opportunities available to you.

There was a lot of interns in Head Office, and then a few more throughout the country. Despite this, by month 6 I definitely felt integrated within the social scene, and I made the effort to attend a lot of the events. Everyone was incredibly friendly and welcoming despite not always knowing everyone as well.

I saved money and commuted into work each day, but there are train and tram links near the office. The area is incredibly cheap to live in and around, but there are also some more upmarket areas not so far away. Obviously the centre of Manchester is more expensive than the outskirts. There is a really good balance between the costs.

There is not really a nightlife scene right by the offices, but the centre of Manchester has a great deal going on which was easy to take advantage of.

Yes, all Virgin Media employees have at least 1 day of volunteering per year, so during my placement I took 2 days. There are always company wide initiatives to get involved in, plus key events like V Fest.