Events and Volunteer Communications Intern (Sports Team) Review

The internship scheme is run really well by CRUK with plenty of personal development opportunities, such as CV and presentation workshops. The team I worked in was lovely and people across the organisation were very approachable the whole time. I also found it very useful to have the community of interns to work with and consult on different matters.

The members of my team were wonderful, very approachable and always more than willing to help. It surprised me just how personable even the most senior members of the team were, as they took the time to help me with projects and interacted with me as part of the team. The other interns were also wonderful in making sure that everyone was happy and easy to work with.

Every week I had a one to one catch up with my manager to discuss things I had been working on and any problems I was having. This was further cemented during weeks 2 and 6 were we had more formal reviews that were lead by me. Other members of the team who gave me projects/tasks were also keen to give guidance and support and more than willing to answer questions and have regular catch ups to guide me along. Further to this, we had wonderful support from Jonathan and then Esther who are in charge of all things internship based, having originally been interns for CRUK they have first hand experience and expert guidance to get you through any problems

Whilst I was generally quite busy, the nature of the business varied. At the beginning of the internship, working in the sports team, there were a lot of events to help organise and volunteers to contact and manage, but by the end of October, the events season had finished and so the work load changed from lots of short term tasks to fewer long term projects, lasting a few weeks and requiring a different level of project management skill.

From the get go, I was in charge of answering queries to a shared inbox, creating and distributing event briefs for volunteers for events and communicating with the volunteers. Further to this I also led the recruitment of volunteers for a number of events so felt like I had a decent amount of responsibility across the internship, but was always adequately supported in this

I had many opportunities to develop skills such as organisation, communication and time and project management. These were developed from their original extent and will be very useful in the future. Further to this, there were a number of opportunities to develop my CV, in a workshop and in a 1 to 1 session as well as my interview and presentation skills in workshops and also in practical application.

Everyone in the office is lovely and always willing to help no matter how small your problem. They also really encouraged getting up and sharing what you were doing with the rest of the team. CRUK has quite a relaxed atmosphere, which meant I was quite comfortable to wear any clothes - from a skirt suit to jeans and trainers - I never felt out of place! Further to this, the other interns were great to get on with and provided a lot of peer support.

CRUK has 3 sets of internships a year and the internship programme has been going for around 10 years, this means that everything is tried and tested and they take the feedback very seriously. There is one person in charge of the internship scheme and they help you with any issues you may have and also foresee a lot of queries because they themselves were an intern!

CRUK did a lot to make sure I personally developed during my time. They put on CV workshops and 1 to 1 sessions, presentation and interview skill workshops which were very useful and also offer a lot of extra training in things like 'talking about cancer', photoshop, writing on brand etc. Further to this, I was managed carefully to make sure I was getting as much out of my internship as I wanted.

There are a lot of internal vacancies within CRUK and there are a lot of opportunities not only to progress within your department but also to cross to a different department without too much of a faff. I know many people who started off as interns with CRUK and have now been with the company for at least 5 years, developing their career through the ranks and also across them!

The interns were a well socialised group, with a social every week. It was also quite easy to recognise them as we have a different colour of lanyard to those working at CRUK - this meant at lunch time, there was always someone to eat with and have a chat to if you were having any issues. For example, I always felt more comfortable asking another intern if I had a printing problem so as to not 'bother' my colleagues working.

London is quite an expensive place, but there are cheaper places around CRUK and you also get deals with some nearby companies for working with CRUK. CRUK don't pay their interns but do have a generous travel budget and reimburse lunch up to £4 each day - this is ideal in the canteen, or for getting a meal deal from any of the supermarkets / shops nearby.

We went to a number of different bars and pubs for our 'Thirsty Thursday' socials, which were wonderful