Intern Review

I have really enjoyed my time here at Cancer Research UK. The location is lovely and I can honestly say the members of staff across the whole organisation make it a generally all-round comfortable and exciting place to work. There are also ample opportunities to have fun and gain skills alongside your placement such as through intern fundraising and volunteering on various events/special events – so if you aren’t enjoying your placement, there are plenty of other ways you can make up for this within the organisation.

When I was given work to do at the start of my placement, I felt very valued by my colleagues. I felt like the work I was doing was important and contributed to the success of the event I was working on. As the placement continued on however, I felt there was less and less work for me to do so I was being given smaller, less important tasks which I felt were given to me just to entertain me for the last few weeks. At this point I did not feel particularly valued and would advise anyone starting a 3 month internship to speak to their manager at the very start to make sure there is enough work for them to be doing for the whole duration of the placement.

I can honestly say the support mechanisms at Cancer Research UK are amazing. There are so many opportunities for professional development and every week I would meet with my manager and she would ask me what skills I wanted to gain and would try to find tasks for me which would help me develop these skills I felt I needed practise in. The intern coordinator also held CV, interview skills and presentation skills workshops to help us become better in all of these areas which would make it easier for us to get jobs after the placement. We were also given a professional development pack and encouraged to fill it in so we knew what we wanted to gain out of the internship. Managers are constantly giving you feedback on your performance here and there will always be opportunities to ask for more work if you feel like you aren't being challenged.

On some days I was really busy, on other days it was a bit quieter. I was particularly quiet when my manager went on holiday for one week because when I ran out of things to do I couldn't contact him to ask for something else to do. When I was struggling to find things to do I could ask other members of my team for more work which was good but there wasn't always things they could give for me to do either.

I was given as much responsibility as was appropriate. As is the same with all internships, your manager cannot give you work which, if not completed, will be detrimental to the company because frankly - you are a volunteer and could get up and leave at any point. I feel like this impacted how much responsibility I was given through each of my tasks however I do still feel like at times I was challenged and my manager did work around this to give me tasks which were having an impact on the company. For example, he would proof read my emails before I sent them off - but would still allow me to write the emails in the first place.

The skills I developed and training I received absolutely will assist me in my degree studies and beyond. I updated my CV and have already received a few interviews off the buck of this and I have loads to talk about in interviews now if questions on organisation, project management etc. I was given a wide variety of tasks to complete over the whole internship scheme which has provided me with lots of different skills I will be able to transfer to any other role I take on in my career.

There is always something going on at the office - whether that be internal fundraising, presentations by the directors, activities happening in the Taste café at lunch! It was truly a really dynamic environment to work in and a good balance of hard work and laid back chatting across the whole office. People all understood that you needed to take a breather every hour/couple of hours to go for a walk or chat with your colleagues and it made the atmosphere much more relaxed. I worked in a team though where most of us worked in the office however I know some of the other interns worked in teams where the majority of their colleagues worked from home and didn't have the same experience as me - so I definitely think it depends what team you are in what the work culture is like.

It was very well organised. Every week I met with my manager to have a 1-1 to go through my expectations for the week ahead and to update him on the progress of each of my projects/pieces of work. We were also asked to have 3 reviews over the internship scheme - at the start, in the middle and at the end to go through personal development and what skills we wanted to gain/think we did gain over the placement. We were also mobilised by the intern coordinator to take part in team building activities and weekly socials to make it more fun and friendly atmosphere so overall I think the placement was very well organised.

As I said before, the company really cared about making sure we were getting the most out of the placement and that we had a clear idea of what skills we wanted to gain and encouraged us to strive for these. We were given a personal development pack and encouraged to fill it in regularly to track our progress, we were also invited to CV/interview skills and presentation skills workshops to practise these areas if we feel they weren't our strengths. There were also opportunities to meet with members of HR to go over what our LinkedIn profiles should look like or to ask them to read our CV's. The intern coordinator also sent round internal vacancy notices whenever they arose so that we could be the first to apply for these jobs and put ourselves in the best position to get employed by the company after our internship scheme ended.

Very appealing - I think Cancer Research UK is a really good organisation to work for and there are lots of opportunities to move around in the company if you do get a position and aren't happy with it/want to try something new. I would apply for a job here if the right job came up.

Yes - every week we were encouraged to go to 'Thirsty Thursdays' with the other interns so we could get to know each other in a less formal environment. There were less opportunities to go out with my team though and most of the time they did go out it was for someone's leaving drinks which I wouldn't be invited to because I did not know the person who was leaving. There could have been more arranged with the interns that didn't involve alcohol however as I know some people were reluctant to come out for drinks if they didn't drink alcohol.

The cost of living would be around £500-800 a month for a room/flat to rent. Drinks would normally cost around £3-5 depending on where you went and if you got a discount (Cancer Research UK got a discount in a local pub so we normally just went there). If you went for dinner it would cost around £10 for a meal.

It was good but expensive - we never actually went out on a night out but from living in London I can vouch for this (unless you go on a Thursday when there are normally lots of drinks deals).

Yes LOADS - we were really encouraged to engage in intern fundraising as a way to raise money for the organisation, have fun and gain really practical skills like project management. This was one of my favourite parts of the internship because we could be really creative and it allowed us to meet loads of people across the whole building. There were also lots of volunteering opportunities at the boat race, marathons or even special events like the Emeralds and Ivy ball.