Intern Review

This placement is a great way to gain an insight in working in a large organisation. I had a lot of opportunities to work with different departments. Everyone here is friendly and willing to meet to discuss the different opportunities here. Although internships can vary and some interns can be given more responsibilities than others depending on the team they are in.

Again I feel that varies depending on the team. Members of the team, though, will always ask how you are getting on and give advice if you need it. You will need to be very pro-active though and try to organise meetings to regularly update them. Some will even try to organise a welcome lunch/drink sessions.

Most managers will understand that it may be the first time you worked in such an environment. Whether you are not used to the email system, or you don’t understand the task you are set, they are willing to meet to go over any questions you may have. The internship is structured in a way that you will get regular feedback from weekly 1-1 meetings, or a 2 weeks, 6 weeks and 12 weeks review. So you will always be supported.

Personally I did not feel very busy and I was bored quite a lot of the time. But again, I have met many interns that have said they had a lot to do. So it must vary depending on the department. In addition, it depends on the workload the team has, so even CRUK staff will have days where they are not as busy.

I don’t think I was given that much responsibility. CRUK is a good organisation to work for, and the internship are designed to give you a set of skills, especially in project management. It is the case for the majority of interns, but because my team encountered a few problems, it was not my case. I think it would be a good idea for future interns to discuss how the project is going at the interview stage.

I think I learnt valuable skills, especially in marketing. I have learnt what it is like to work in a large, non-profit organisation and developed the essential communications skills to work across departments. Overall, it was still a very good experience and I am sure that they skills I have learnt here will give me an advantage in my career.

I think the atmosphere was good. Obviously it is a work environment, so it would not be parties 24/7, but people are very friendly and talk to each other. When it is somebody’s birthday, people will gather around his/her desk with cake and cards (unless they sent an email to say not to) singing. So it is a warm atmosphere.

Overall, it is very well organised. There are many opportunities to get involved outside of the internships. Interns can organise fundraising events, and we have chances to meet weekly to socialise (thirsty Thursdays as it is called). We also had the chance to give the fundraising teams campaigns ideas, in a dragon’s den style.

I think CRUK takes personal training and development very seriously, both for their interns and members of staff. We were offered CV workshops, presentation skills workshops, 1-1 CV check with an HR member of staff. We are also sent emails for online courses that would be useful for our role. If you needed to learn how to use a certain program, then it was quite easy to organise a training session.

I think that the job prospects are not that great unless you go through the graduate scheme. While it is true that quite a few CRUK staff were previously interns, most did also do the grad scheme. There are not a lot of entry-level roles available but apparently, that is changing.

There was a good social scene both with interns and members of staff. We were able to meet weekly at the pub. Many teams organise an away day and this can be innovative and fun. If not, there are usually a lot of fundraising events happening internally throughout the year which helps people meet.

As expected of central London, quite expensive.

As expected of central London, very lively and great.

Yes there were a lot of opportunities such as helping out at fundraising events (ie stand up to cancer, the santa run) and other volunteering.