Product Quality Intern Review

Really enjoyed the internship at Tesco.

I definitely felt valued by colleagues. My project was necessary in a complete company re-design and I was given complete scope to do with it whatever I wanted. Peoplw would always help and wish me luck.

My line manager gave me loads of support but also stood back when she saw I didn't need anything. Before she took holidays she sat down and gave me details of people to ask specific things to if I needed.

It was completely dependant upon the day. One day I would have back to back meetings and the next I would have a day to myself to work at my own pace as and how I wanted. Flexi-time and working from home was good here because it meant if I had a quiet day on the Monday of Friday I could go home for a long weekend and work from home.

I was given more responsibilty than I thought I would be given. My project breif was really vague and I was given scope to follow any lead and make any recommendations.

The skills I gained really helped in my final year of study. Even though I'm extremely organised anyway, Tesco taught me to approach each uni assignment as a project and make realistic time lines and also realistic expectations of myself. It also helped me in the research side of my degree as I organised focus groups and customer panels whilst I was at Tesco.

General atmosphoere is absolutely brilliant. Not at all high pressured or stressful. It is a hot desk set up so nobody has a specific desk and you move around within an area every day. There are "breakout" areas in each floor of each office building which is really a kitchen. You get free tea, coffee and squash and there's instant hot water taps so you don't need to worry about waiting for the kettle to boil. There are also areas away from desks where you can sit down and chat with colleagues. There are smaller rooms within the offices where you can have more formal internal meetings. The offices are light and airy and there's a really positive atmosphere.

The internship was pretty well organised. We knew exactly what intern events were on what days, we had a full induction from a variety of people across the company. However, my internship programme specifically was left quite late to organise in terms of the interviews and we were only told if we were successful just over a week before the job started. This was a bit annoying if you had to relocate

The company invested in us by letting us have the time to arrange and speak to anyone in the company. Additionally we were also allowed to speak to suppliers and do supplier visits just for the experience. We were given masterclasses throughout the internship including Excel, Outlook, Mind Talk, Labs, Networking and many more. Attendance to these isn't mandatory so yo don't feel like the Early Careers Team are being over bearing.

If you impress on the internship then you get onto the grad scheme. Our years interns haven't been told yet but talking to previous grads, the majority of interns get onto the grad scheme.

There was a social scene but because there was 54 of us it was quite difficult to plan out of work events because a lot of people went home/were busy. The Early Careers Society put on events such as after work drinks, bowling, sports day. The Early Careers Team also did a pizza eat'n'meet.

My rent was £100 a week bills included and the cost of living and socialising generally £50/60 a week.

Nightlife in Welwyn was atrocious. Nearby Hatfield only has one club as well. A lot of people go to St.Albans or into London.

There wasn't too nmany opportunities because a lot of interns commuted in or went home on weekends so it made it hard to organise things.