Product Quality Technical Meat Intern Review

I enjoyed it very much. I was given almost free reign to see any areas of the business I liked and went on a variety of different site visits every week so that I could get a full insight into the role my team played in the business. It was great to be able to chat to a number of different people and get their advice on progressing my career. It also opened my eyes to different opportunities that I hadn't even considered- I hadn't thought my degree would've been relevant.

All my colleagues were very welcoming and so happy to help me, be it with work or just questions in general. They all included me whenever going for lunch or for breaks and everyone seemed happy to help me learn. They also listened to my ideas and inputs but obviously they know a lot more about the industry and though I would say I was valued they didn't expect me to take on their level of work and know everything.

Any issues I had or anything I was concerned about (like not having enough work) was dealt with by my managers. They were happy to schedule meetings with me and found me extra things to do. They also were happy to chat about their careers and their advice for progressing through the company or into the industry as a whole.

Due to the nature of my team everyone is out of the office at different times. I was given my own project to do and various pieces of work however I did sometimes feel I could've been given more work. That said more focus was put on me learning not on them getting their money's worth out of me.

I was given independent projects to complete and given responsibility for its delivery. This meant I was trusted to contact suppliers and visit them in order to complete my work. I was also given tasks to create documents that would be used across the whole quality control team so I felt like the work I was doing was useful and important. I didn't feel out of my depth however and any help I needed I was given so although I had responsibility I wasn't out of my depth.

I study Biology so although the internship wasn't directly relevant to my degree I did learn a great deal about possible uses for my degree (in terms of careers to go into). When I mentioned my interests in disease prevention and control and antibiotic use I was guided towards people to speak to in order to learn more. I did learn an awful lot about the food industry which, if I am successful on progressing into this industry, will be a great help to me.

It was a bustling environment with a variety of people in every day so many new faces. It was professional but friendly with people chatting to colleagues but also people getting on with their work. In terms of noise levels it was pleasant, quiet enough to be able to concentrate but it was by no means silent so you felt you could chat to people if you needed to ask a question. People were on the whole very happy looking too which added to the environment.

It was well set up with a number of different development days scheduled into the diary. However we only heard that we'd been accepted 1.5 weeks before start of internship which meant a bit of a rush to find accommodation. We also could've benefitted from a list of who to contact for certain queries however I did raise this point and it was taken on board and so will be implemented for next year's intake.

They heavily invested in me as an individual by allowing me to visit any site that would be of interest to me and would help me learn. We also had various development days throughout the period with different speakers to help us, eg presentation skills/ how to be assertive. We had a long induction at the beginning where we were paid so it was clear from that they wanted us to fully understand the business and be comfortable with what we were doing rather than throwing us in the deep end.

If given the chance I'd love to work for Tesco again and you are told that there is chance to be accepted onto the grad scheme should you impress. There's a lot of opportunity for travel and for moving around within the business and so that is definitely appealing. The company also offers a lot of perks if you work for them for longer periods of time so it is clear they definitely look after their employees. Its positive to see that many people have worked their for 20 years + so Tesco must be doing something right!

We had a social sec to try and organise socials for us but due to the large number of us it became hard to organise things. We did socialise a lot within our smaller teams and everyone is very friendly.

I lived at home and commuted daily so the cost for me was minimal except for fuel. Prices for properties generally were more pricey due to the proximity to London but that is to be expected. If you find something early you can get better deals. Socialising costs were not that bad, I didn't notice the price of drinks being much worse than normal and other activities weren't too dear.

London was close by but it was expensive to come back on the train so we didn't really ever go there. People often went home on a weekend so to be honest not a great deal happened on a weekend.

There was an early careers society which offered sports teams for people to get involved with. We also had charity teams where we had to make as much money as we could from £10 so there was opportunity to be involved in fundraising. The gym was subsidised so you could do that too.