Intern Review

I have really enjoyed my internship at Tesco so far. I have been able to understand more about lots of different departments, including buying, commodities, customer, technical and product development. My project that I have been given is really interesting and I have been really welcomed in to the team which has made the whole experience much more enjoyable.

I feel as though I bring quite a lot of value to the team. My project is designed to add value once completed so hopefully my work will be appreciated. I feel that I am treated as one of the team and I have been invited to join in with out of office activities. I feel valued by lots of members of the team, not just my line manager, which has enabled me to find out more about multiple areas.

I have been given a lot of support and guidance by my manager and the rest of the team. They have given me autonomy over my project but have strongly emphasised that I can always ask for help and I have weekly catch ups with a number of people in my team to assist with my project. There have been a couple of times that I have felt confused by my work but these have been quickly resolved.

I generally felt that I had a good amount of work to keep me busy but not to make me feel stressed. There were a few times at the beginning, before my project fully started, where I didn't feel I had enough to do but the frequency of this has hugely decreased throughout the course of my internship. I am glad that I have never felt stressed about the amount of work I have to do.

I was given total responsibility over my project, with the possibility of asking for help, but I have not been given responsibility over any day to day jobs within the team. Instead I have been able to observe how these processes occur without feeling the pressure of having to complete a task which I do not understand. I have enjoyed the amount of freedom and responsibility I have been given for my project.

The time management, organisation and project management skills I have improved will be really useful when I go back for my final year at university and beyond. I have also received training in specific areas, such as presentation skills and computer skills, that will also be useful and, if I choose to return to Tesco, I nowan understanding of many areas and skills which I could apply to my work.

The general atmospher is a lot less corporate than I expected, which was a nice surprise. The team I have been placed in get on really well and made me feel really welcome. There is a lot of camaraderie within the team, as well as a clear passion for their specific work. It is really inclusive and I have enjoyed hanging out with my team as well as the rest of intern group.

Before I started the internship, I did not have a very clear understanding of what I was going to be doing and email communication was quite patchy, which was frustrating. However, as soon as I started working with my team, everything ran very smoothly and I was able to start working. The internship was well organised in terms of regular training sessions being set up by the Early Careers Team.

I feel that the company has invested strongly in me, with an aim to encouraging me to join the company once I finish university. They have provided a wide range of training sessions and my team has been good at including me in exciting trips and meetings to broaden my understanding of the company and show me the benefits of working at Tesco.

I think the future employment prospect within the company are pretty appealing. If they are pleased with my internship work, I can come back after university to join the graduate scheme which is a two year job and includes lots of extra training with a competitive salary.

Yes there is a good social scene. One of the interns was made social secretary for the duration of our internship and it was his responsibility to organise social events. The Early Careers team also organised events for us to attend. My team also had social events outside ofwork which I was invited to come along to, such as a BBQ. However it was quite difficult to organise intern meet ups as we were all quite spaced out in living terms.

The cost of living was similar to university - we were living in a vacated student house. The cost of socialising was cheap as there was not much to do in the town where I was living but if I went in to London to meet up with people it became quite expensive. I was lift sharing to get to work which made it cheaper.

Not great.

Yes there was sport organised by the Early Careers team and by the wider company too but this was limited to football so not inclusive to all . There were lots of external possibilities, such as gyms to join or watersports, but I did not choose to take up any of these as I did not feel I needed to add to my schedule.