GDP Intern Review

The internship has been a really enjoyable experience, 8 weeks has proved to be the perfect amount of time to spend working in London. It has given me time to get to know the others on the internship, as well as to get to grips with what WTW does and finally given me time to explore all the departments which appeared interesting to me. On the whole the internship has been very structured with some really good speaker events where I learnt a lot about presenting and the business.

I felt very valued by my colleagues, as always it is hard on an internship to engage fully with a team as they know you are leaving after 8 weeks. However I was giving meaningful work and everyone on my floor was very happy to speak to me, making the whole process very enjoyable.

My manager was quite busy throughout the 8 week period and so was sometimes not around to help, however there is a large support network around you and so it is always easy to speak to people and get advice when needed. The graduate HR team were amazing and always available to answer queries, they have clearly put a lot of time into the program and really care about us interns.

Sometimes I was really busy with meetings and work to do, other times I was not. I had a big research project to complete over the internship so if I was ever quiet then I could always do some work towards that or my group project.

I was trusted with creating a learning module which will be given to the entire of my department when I leave, so a lot of responsibility was put on my shoulders with regards to that. I regularly attended meetings and was allowed to ask questions and contribute when I felt it necessary.

I found my presentation skills were the ones which increased most over the internship, we had 3 separate training days with public speaking professionals which were amazing at teaching me new skills and ways of making my speaking skills better.

There was quite a serious atmosphere on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday when the large majority of work gets done. On Thursday and Friday there is a lot more chatting and the atmosphere is much more laid back. On Fridays at the end of the month there is always free drinks in the kitchen area of the office, quite a few people stay behind and have drinks for an hour or so at these events.

The internship was amazingly well structured. We had a really good 2 day induction followed by meeting our team and graduate buddys over lunch. There was at least one speaker event in each week of the internship at lunchtime. With additional meetings and after work socials organised by the graduate chat. My favourite being a cocktail making event at Mixology, On top of these we were invited to events with the graduates such as a summer sports day social. The internship culminated with a big dragons den style presentation and then evening drinks and canapés on the 22nd floor.

The company clearly put a lot of effort into all of the internship events, a lot of money was invested into us outside of our salary. All the additional internship events were definitely the highlight of the internship for me.

I think the new 2 year GDP rotational program looks like a really good opportunity. It appears that this program would be tremendous in setting you up for a very good career in the insurance and risk industry. As a company in general they seem to care about everyone, this is demonstrated by the opinion of everyone I have spoken to at WTW, they all enjoy working at the company.

Yes there were 18 of us on the internship and we all had a great time socially. We met up for lunch almost every day as a big group and regularly had drinks on a Thursday evening. There was a range of personalities but everyone was excited to be at the company and this resulted in us having a great time over the 8 weeks, it really didn't feel like work on some occasions because we had so much fun.

Its London so its never going to be that cheap, the pubs close to the office are all quite fairly priced for London though. Much cheaper than places like Chelsea, Notting Hill, etc.

The nightlife was good. Leadenhall market which is almost opposite the WTW building was busy every evening of the week. If you wanted to go to actual nightclubs then Shoreditch is only a 15 minute walk away, here there are a large range of nightclubs.

Yes, I played touch rugby and football outside of work. You have to seek out these opportunities and it depends largely on your team but there are definitely opportunities to do lots of activities outside of work!