Online & Customer Fulfilment Summer Intern Review

I enjoyed working for Tesco as a company and learning how different parts of the company worked together. With 500,000 (ish!) employees it is easy to imagine that you would feel lost in such a big company, but in Online I didn't find that at all. In terms of my particular role I didn't enjoy it to begin with, but towards the end of the internship everything clicked and I enjoyed it a lot more.

I really got on with my colleagues - they were very welcoming and friendly. However, perhaps due to the project I was given, I didn't feel as valued because the work I was doing didn't feel essential. But they were the most friendly people, who would always take the time to explain something you didn't understand, or just to help with anything you were doing.

I was given a very senior manager (which is unusual), and so he wasn't often available to speak to. He also went on holiday for a month during the internship. However, he was really lovely when I did speak to him and left me to get guidance from a graduate who was very switched on and gave great feedback. The only issue was when I would have the graduate tell me to do one thing, then my manager would later tell me to do the opposite.

I wasn't very busy at all, partly due to the nature of my particular project. However, in the last 3 weeks the work picked up a lot, which made me enjoy it so much more. As an intern, depending on the team you are in / project you are given, you may not have much to do. I found the best way to avoid this was to create my own mini projects, and get involved with charity work, of which there was a lot.

I feel like I was probably given more responsibility than I thought. With some projects I didn't have much responsibility, whereas with others I had more. Towards the end I realised more about how the work I was doing was going to affect future work and projects in my team.

No matter how much I enjoyed the internship, I would definitely do it again because I learned so much about what I want to do in the future and the environment I want to work in. Stuff like do you prefer an office setting or not, do you prefer project-based work or day-to-day, etc.

Online at Tesco is full of brilliant, engaging people who are very friendly. There is always competitions, charity work, etc going on. One of the great things that I found was that I could contact anyone and meet up with them just to learn about their jobs. People would always find the time in their diaries to meet you, and would be happy to let you work shadow, join them on trips, etc.

The facilitation of the internship was great. The only downside I can think of was that we had a very long induction and intern development days that I feel were unnecessary. There were sessions such as 'decision-making skills' or 'presentation skills' that weren't useful, but we had to spend a day listening to them when we had stuff to be getting on with at work.

The intern development days were organised to help with this. However, for me I think the best parts of training and development we got was in the office day-to-day. I had weekly catch-ups to discuss my projects, ask for help,etc, and a review halfway through my internship to help track my process overall.

I would like to work for Tesco in the future as it is a very nice place to work and the people are lovely. I'm not sure if I would do Online, purely because I have learned that my skill set isn't as well matched to it as I thought, but the great thing about Tesco is the variety of roles you can take on.

There was a social sec and an early careers society, but most stuff was happening on weekends when I was away. They didn't necessarily listen when people were saying no to events/meet ups on weekends. I found that there was a lot of social stuff (or lots more so than with interns) with the graduates, so we spent a lot more time with the graduate in our function (Online) than with interns from other functions.

Expensive! Going to university in the North of England definitely didn't prepare me for prices in the South East. Tesco doesn't help you find accommodation which creates a big challenge, especially if you don't live anywhere in the South East. The availability of flats/house shares in the area is very low and I would recommend looking into this before applying.

What nightlife? Welwyn Garden City isn't exactly a nightlife mecca, but Kings Cross is half an hour on the train so you have London to go to! However, London is very expensive obviously so in terms of nightlife there aren't many options. There are pubs, restaurants, etc in Welwyn Garden City, but not a 'nightlife' as such.

Some, but it depended on your department and your team. Everyone has team days which is a great way to get to know other people on your team and I really enjoyed mine. There are also occasionally events, eg BBQs or charity events, which you can get involved with or attend. If there isn't much going on though you are always welcome to set something up!