Health and Benefits summer intern Review

I really enjoyed the internship and found that the work I was given was interesting and stimulating. The people I worked with were really focused but also friendly and sociable. It was a fast-paced and dynamic working environment, but outside work there were plenty of opportunities to socialise with colleagues. The work was varied, I was given tasks that ranged from admin, taking minutes, research, data analysis, presentations, and drafting proposals for clients.

I felt really valued by my colleagues and this was reflected in the level of responsibility that they gave me. I was given responsibility from the onset by managing a project within my first two weeks. Subsequent responsibilities included managing data results of focus groups, putting together presentations, drafting proposals for clients and attending clients meetings.

Despite such a fast-paced environment, I was given a lot of support by my management and felt that I could talk to them if I ever needed any assistance with any of the work. My line manager arranged catch up meetings with me to check my progress and I found those really useful to identify areas of strength and weakness.

I was busy everyday and usually had a checklist of about five tasks that I aimed to complete by the end of each day, however if these were not completed I would stay late to ensure my checklist was complete. There was never a moment where I had nothing to do and if I felt that my workload was light for a day I would look to my colleagues to see if there was any work that I could pick up.

I was really pleased with the level of responsibility I was given during the internship and felt that I was fully trusted by my colleagues in fulfilling a task. For example, I was responsible for writing the content of a presentation that would be delivered to existing and prospective clients and felt that my contribution to the task was a success. Following this I was given responsibility to manage focus groups for one of our clients, this required a lot of liaising with colleagues and the client to ensure the focus group was a success. I also managed the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the results from this focus group which I then used to create a presentation for the client.

The skills I developed on the internship at Aon were invaluable to my personal and professional development. I started the internship with very sketchy knowledge of the employee benefits and insurance industry but by the end of it I felt very confident to talk about the industry. Particularly my organisational and communication skills improved over the course of the internship and this was partly due to the level of responsibility that I was given as it required constant communication internally and externally with the client. I was given three opportunities to present to reasonably large audiences during the internship and this experience certainly has given me the confidence to stand up and present again.

The general atmosphere of the office was focused and dynamic which is what I expected, but also everyone in the office was friendly, genuine and easy to get along with. There was a really good sense of team spirit amongst the employees in the office and felt everyones opinion and contribution was valued, no matter what level you were. There were plenty of opportunities to socialize with your colleagues after work and there was always someone to catch up with at lunch.

I felt that the internship was well organised and the lines of communication were very clear with management. After our initial meeting my manager knew how involved I wanted to be and helped make this possible by involving me in important projects. My team were excellent in supporting me and prior to my arrival they had already thought of tasks that I could partake in. The tasks were not structured and varied a lot but this was just due to the constant changing nature of the business.

There was no specific training as such, but I felt that the experience and responsibility I was given was invaluable and more useful for my personal development. My team were very good at explaining tasks to me and I certainly received 'on the job training'. My line manager scheduled meetings with me where I received feedback regarding my progress in the internship. This covered all areas from presentational skills to the actual work I was doing and this was invaluable for my personal development. I also received feedback regarding the presentations for the corporate responsibility project from my line manager who came to watch, I found this very useful.

Very appealing, I would relish the opportunity to come back to Aon. I felt the culture and attitudes were in line with my own attitudes towards work and success.

Yes, in central London there was plenty of options for after work with lots of bars and restaurants in teh surrounding area. Usually there were social events after work at the end of the week which was a good opportunity for people to relax and unwind.

I lived at home during my internship, however travel was quite expensive to get into central London which was to be expected. Again, socialising was relatively expensive, but this was because it was in central London. Often there would be deals at bars and restaurants which made it cheaper.

Very good, there were lots of places to go to after work.

Yes, the interns all took part in a corporate social responsibility project and there were numerous charity events that took place. Such as, a quiz night, charity race night and a wine and cheese tasting event. Our group also went to Leeds to fund raise for our Leeds based charity.