HR Summer Intern Review

I really enjoyed my placement at Rolls-Royce. The team I worked with were fantastic from day 1, always very friendly and happy to help me even when they were really busy. Though the work started off a bit slow, I was given real-life work to do and by the end I was constantly really busy. The work itself was really interesting and gave a great insight into the world of HR. Would defintely recommend doing a placement here.

My colleagues were absolutely lovely and were one of my favourite parts of the job. They made me feel valued and part of the team right from the start. Even though it's a huge company everyone is very friendly and treats you like an individual. Everyone- from senior managers to my local team- is very friendly and makes an effort to learn you name and say hello, which makes a huge difference. Always felt like I could ask for help if I needed it.

I did my placement at a time when Rolls-Royce were changing their management structure, so it meant who I was being managed by wasn't always 100% clear. Saying that. my line manager was absolutelt lovely and I could always go to her if I needed something. My colleagues were the biggest help though, and made sure I was constantly receiving the support I needed. I never felt like I was completely by myself as there was always someone I could go to if I needed help.

At the start I wasn't that busy and felt like I spent most of my time just sitting in meetings, but by the end I had a lot of work to be doing. I was given several projects to be involved in and, once they began to trust me and see what I was capable of, I was able to take on more work than was originally supposed to. The days go pretty fast here and I'm rarely clock watching.

I was actually given a suprising amount of responsibility given how little experience I actually have in HR. I was given a huge project to manage which held a lot of responsibility and meant I had to work with some very senior people, which provided lots of fantastic networking opportunities and made me feel like I was really accomplishing something in my time here. I was also given smaller projects to be involved in, but with really clearly defined tasks to be responsible for, which again made me feel like what I was doing mattered.

I think I've become much more confident since I've been here and I've defintely learned a huge amount about HR and know that it's definetly a career area I'd be interested in pursing after uni. It's made me realise how transerferable a lot of the skills from my degree actually are, especially things surrounding communication and project management. It's inspired me to work hard in my degree so I can come back and work here.

I worked in quite a small office away from the main site, but the people i worked with were lovely and made coming into work fun everyday. There were lots of team lunches which were really nice too. Everyone from the other departments was also very friendly and made me feel welcome.

I had clearly set out projects to do which gave my internship a really good sense of purpose and meant that, once I understood the basics, I didn't need to be surpervised all the time which was nice. I also had regular review sessions with my managers which helped give the internship a sense of structure and allowed me to measure my progress and ask any questions I needed to.

Rolls-Royce use an online learning development platform which is quite useful, but the real personal training came more from the fact I was able to properly immerse myself in office work whilst I was here, and everyone was happy to explain anything to me which I didn't understand. I could sign up to development programs if I wanted to, which I think I'd take more advantage of if I were here longer.

If I'm offered a position on the grad scheme then I'd defintely accept it here. The company has such a nice grad culture and are so supportive in developing new talent, there are plenty of opportunitie to learn and develop here. The pay is also amazing and it has really good perks like long holidays, which makes it even more tempting.

The social scene was one of the best parts of the placement. Loads of the interns stay in uni halls together and it means you get to meet a huge amount of people going through the same thing as you- it's basically freshers with work thrown in the mix. There's a really good social scene at work too, with all the interns meeting for lunch everyday.

Derby is very very cheap! The uni rent wasn't too expensive and things like food shopping and nights out were pretty decent. There are lots of bars and pubs nearby that do good weekday offers, and some places give you a discount for Rolls-Royce employees which I'd defintely recommened taking advantage of.

The nightlife was actually suprisingly good in Derby! There were lots of cheap clubs to choose from, Friday night was defintely the highlight of the week! There was also a good range of pubs and bars which we could visit during the week.