Intern Review

The internship was varied and enjoyable overall. Colleagues were very supportive and at the same time willing to give me responsibilities right from the start. Everyone was so friendly and more than willing to take the time to explain the business, experiences and their own insights with you.

I was put into a diverse and active team who involved me from the start. I was given responsibilities and a variety of tasks which became more demanding as the internship progressed. I feel my team appreciated the work I put in and frequently invited me to team outings.

From day one I was given a buddy in my team and had weekly one to ones with my manager, these were an opportunity to discuss and expand on the work I had done and how they related to the business.

The workload varied, some days I would be busy for the whole day with assigned tasks, other days I wouldn't have too much to do. However, I saw this as an opportunity to interact with my team and find other tasks to do, on one occasion I went from having nothing to do to suddenly being a part of a business pitch involving other international Aon offices.

As soon as I arrived I was given responsibilities that I was expected to fulfill during the internship. As the weeks went by I was given a more diverse range of tasks to perform. However I never felt out of my depth and knew that I could say if I thought something was beyond my level or I needed more guidance.

I definitely learnt a lot about time management which will assist me going into my final year. Aon gave me a great insight to the City of London and the insurance industry and confirmed that it is what I want to do upon finishing my studies. The variety of projects and clients that I worked with has also broadened my knowledge on global economics, with specific regional focuses.

During the internship we moved into Aon's new office in the Leadenhall Building which provided a great work atmosphere. The hot dealing definitely made a very sociable atmosphere in the office as you say amongst different colleagues every day. The office also has a Starbucks in the canteen which offers free coffees during certain hours, this encouraged us to expand our working environment beyond the office floor and network with other teams and meet with other interns during the day.

Initially the internship was very well structured and there was a clear schedule of work. Most interns work in different teams who determine your work, this meant that everyone had a different experience. Although most of the time I was very busy, I did sometimes feel that my team didn't have a lot for me to do and didn't know what to assign to me, however this was rare. The group project we did was very well structured from the beginning and was a great way to network with other interns.

Aon invested so much time into me, the colleagues were very focused on passing on their knowledge and insights to me. I was given books by colleagues which explained the business and was also introduced to the qualifications that I could do if I were to join the graduate scheme. In the first week we also had some intense and informative training days which were very useful.

The internship has confirmed to me that I definitely want to work within the London insurance industry and With Aon. Throughout the internship I learnt much more about the graduate scheme and my career beyond that.

I went for drinks a few times with the other interns, but because we were so spread out across London we never stayed out too late. I tended to socialise more with my team who always included me in team drinks and other events with clients too.

London is quite an expensive city to live and work in. If you want to live centrally be prepared to pay high rents for a room. Socialising inquire expensive too, having said that, there were lots of bars around the office which did happy hour deals which made going out after work more affordable.

The city tends to be very buzzing up until around 9pm, after that it tends to get quit, however neighbouring areas such as Shoreditch are lively until the early hours and have a wide variety of nightlife to suit all tastes.

Aon has lots of networking and social opportunities outside of working hours which are there to be taken advantage of. Aon also has a huge corporate social responsibility programme which it actively encourages employees to get involved with, there are endless projects across the country for employees to get involved with and work with some great causes.