General Merchandise Intern Review

In terms of the job itself, the company and my colleagues, I found it really great. My job was exactly what I wanted to be doing, and I got great experience from that. The company had a fantastic culture and was great to be a part of, and my colleagues we all really friendly and great at their jobs - which helped a lot with me doing mine!

I would say that I personally felt very valued, in that I was seen as quite capable from the start and so was given a lot of responsibility and my colleagues valued my work. However, I would note that some other interns felt this less so.

All tiers of my management and supervisors were very accessible despite their hectic schedules. Even going three or four stages up the hierarchy I found they had a lot of time for me and would talk to me about any concerns I had or even just general discussions - was a real highlight of the internship.

I was extremely busy on most days. My department was slightly short-staffed, and so my arrival was very useful for them and I arguably got a regular merchandiser's workload - which was fantastic for my development. This was not the 'project' originally offered by the scheme, but I saw this as an upgrade. Again, however, I would say that some interns were somewhat less busy than myself.

I think compared to friends who undertook internships at other companies, I would say that I was given a lot of responsibility. After a couple of weeks in the job I was responsible for lots of ordering and forecasting, later on gaining responsibilities in things as important as the range launch. This made me feel very valued and helped my development a lot.

I believe working in a team in a fast-paced environment will be a very valuable skill that I will take through life with me. Also, at Tesco you meet an abundance of people on a daily basis, and so, networking/social skills gained in my time there will prove very valuable too.

More often than not it was extremely fun and lively, on the whole it was a very good atmosphere to be a part of. However, there were times (which of course there will be in any office) that there were deadlines to be met and work to be done and so it could be a bit manic.

In terms of bedding in the cohort of interns with each other and the company, it really couldn't have been any better. We had plenty of time together to make friends with each other and also lots of speeches from people around the business to introduce us to it and excite us about working there. However, I would say that the general consensus from many interns was that in terms of the job itself, some people could have been better set up in their departments.

There were a couple of development days, on which talks were held from various people around the business to help us gain skills and bed into the culture of Tesco. So I would say they invested in our character and makeup as an employee quite an amount, however, I would say that more technical training was lacking slightly.

I would love to return to Tesco and fully intend to do so on the graduate scheme next year!

The social scene between the interns was fantastic, we met up at least once a week for a variety of activities and it really enhanced the experience of the internship.

It was quite expensive. The proximity to London means most of it is done there (so very expensive), but even in Hertfordshire it isn't a great deal cheaper than London. However, the internship does pay well, so the wage somewhat counteracted the expensive area.

In Hertfordshire - not fantastic. There were many pubs and restaurants which was nice, but in terms of bars and clubs for the evening, we would go to London, which was 20 minutes away on a train, so very easily accessible, but sometimes difficult to get a late train back.

With other interns - yes - with social clubs at Tesco - not really. There was a running club on a Monday which I joined, but I was hoping for some kind of football team and maybe more time out with colleagues but this wasn't really the case. Intern activities were very frequent, which somewhat made up for this, but obviously the average full time colleague won't feel this benefit.