Summer Intern - Commercial Development Review

I enjoyed the working environment, friendliness, and atmosphere at National Grid. The work itself was not the most interesting to me personally, but overall it was a pleasant experience.

I definitely felt valued. The project I was doing was important to the company and resulted in actions being taken. The feedback I got from colleagues was positive and they listened to my ideas with respect.

My manager was very busy so I did not always have regular discussions with him, but he was very approachable and I did go to him for support when I wanted. Other collegues who more closely supervised my project were very supportive and I had contact with them daily.

The nature of my project meant I was very busy some days, but not very on other days as I had to wait for other people to reply before I could start the next task. However, I mentioned this to my manager and he was very happy to give me an additional task to fill my spare time.

I was responsible for completing two tasks - one as a pair with another intern, the other on my own. I did feel like I was given sufficient responsiblity as the work I produced was my own and any actions that came from it were credited to me (and/or my partner).

I have devel.oped my communication skills a lot - learning how to approach people of different levels within a company. This will be very useful at university when working with students and researchers/lecturers and especially later in working life. I have also developed my problem solving skills because I had to come up with solutions to a task - this will be good when facing challenges or new tasks in the future.

Really relaxed and friendly. I felt wlecomed when I was new as people were happy to talk to me and go to lunch with me. The working area is very open and people chat and are easy to approach which is nice.

Very well organised. There is a clear structure with training, support, and reviewing meetings throughout. You set up objectives at the begining so you clearly know what the internship entails and then have reviews half-way and at the end to see what you have achieved.

National Grid invested in us a lot. There were 5 training days in totoal (three at the start and two at the end) - all expenses paid. This helped us be prepared and develop throughout the internship. We were also given many people to contact if we wanted for advice/support.

The internship leads straight into the graduate programme so the prospects are very good, if you are interested in them. This internship gives you a good opportunity to show what you can do and to also see if National Grid is for you.

There are not many of us interns working in the same place so the social scene is limited. It would be better if the numbers were greater and we lived close together.

It costs a similar amount to what it would in any area in the south. I have found student accomodation for the summer to keep my costs down and I would recommend other interns do the same.

I have not explored the night life. There are not enough of us here to go out together.

A few. Some of the people in my department play squash together and there was a football tournament between teams.