Site IT Intern Review

It has been a great year and would recommend doing an internship to anyone wanting to gain some experience before they leave university. My time at GE has been filled with challenges and opportunities that have had a huge affect on how I think and it has been made all the more enjoyable by the great community.

It was very clear from early one that I would not be considered an 'Intern' but a regular member of staff. People often didn't realise I was an intern and always treated me with respect. I also feel that my work has been appreciated and that hard work doesn't go unnoticed or unappreciated.

My manager is the site IT lead and therefore is always very busy - regardless of this he always had time for me. We had regular one to ones, support was provided in pointing in the right direction and also getting through more difficult processes. At no point do I feel that I was being left unsupported by my manager.

I am usually quite busy on a daily basis - getting caught up in a lot more responsibilities or tasks than just my project work. Occasionally this would be too much and would affect the progress of some of my project work, but I always learnt a lot in these situations and definitely value them more than when I may have had a quieter day.

As mentioned, we were regarded as regular staff and not just an intern. This meant taking on a lot of impactful work, the biggest responsibility I had was leading a project that could have had a negative affect on an ERP rollout if not completed successfully. Projects weren't created with the sole reason of keeping us busy, if we weren't doing the tasks that we were there would be other IT staff doing them.

My experience this year has helped me prioritise my studies for next year, I feel better prepared to get the most out of my learning. I also learnt a lot of functional project management skills that I couldn't learn in university due to the lack of professional experience. The year has been the perfect compliment to my degree and I would recommend an internship at GE to anyone.

The office had been moved around due to hosting another businesses (owned by GE) after they were affected by a fire. However, regardless of the different arrangement the office was always welcoming and help was only every a short walk from my desk. As things quietened down in the afternoon or on a friday there was always a more relaxed environment allowing us all to chat and get to know each other more.

GE is a very large business and there will always be hiccups in the processes. However, I have never felt like I haven't know what to do or where to go if I have needed something on my Internship. The initial on-boarding process was relatively slow, however once things were settled it was obvious that a good variety of work had already been planned out for us in order to give us a good varied experience.

There was less formal training, the only training sessions I attended were ones for using the companies own tools. Most training was delivered either by reflecting on projects or mistakes or through tutoring. I probably would have preferred more of a mix of skill training sessions as well as more passive learning.

I would love to return to GE and have submitted an application for the ITLP Graduate program which is an exciting opportunity for people looking to start their careers in professional IT. They mostly recruit from their interns and do not recruit many external candidates meaning that it's best to do the internship first.

There is a great community of Interns, ITLPS and ITLP Alumni as well within the entire IT department. There are often GE sponsored events but everyone also organises other events, I know that if I invite everyone out for a meal that there will be over 10 of us every time. Sponsored events have included: meals, golf, drinks and pub quizzes.

I'm relatively local to Cheltenham so commuted from home, a lot of areas in Cheltenham do seem to have a slightly higher rent. However, there is a local university meaning there are a lot of student housing areas and it is common for interns to have a house share for the year.

There are a large variety of bars, restaurants and also 3 clubs in Cheltenham. The community here will introduce you to all of the favourites and don't always default to the same place. The only thing that you could say is missing as a Casino, however there is plenty to do otherwise.

There are a lot of other activities outside of work too, including volunteering events for local children centres and sponsored events for charity. I have been to a volunteering session, these are usually during working hours and require manager approval (however they will approve as GE kind of expect people to be involved in such events), we had a good time cleaning, building and redecorating an outdoor sheltered garden area.