Corporate HR - People Innovation Intern Review

I found my internship thoroughly enjoyable. Prior to my internship, I was not sure how much I would enjoy it. I had not had any previous experience in a Human Resources role, so I did not know what to expect. However, I enjoyed every aspect of my internship from start to finish.

I felt incredibly valued by my colleagues. The work I was given was appropriately challenging and helped me to develop new knowledge and skills. Furthermore, the work was meaningful. I was told the rationale behind my work plan and how it would impact the company, which really helped in engaging and motivating me. Everyone I interacted with was welcoming and supportive, and always willing to offer assistance when required. I have definitely made some lifelong friends here and will greatly miss the people at Bechtel.

My supervisor was based in the USA, whereas I was based in the UK office. Despite working in this remote manner, I never once felt unsupported by my supervisor and team. Before arriving at my internship, my supervisor explained the situation and arranged a Point of Contact for me in the UK office. During my first week, my supervisor and team arranged daily Skype meetings with me and provided me with a detailed work plan. Throughout my internship I had frequent Skype meetings with my supervisor; he was always happy to arrange time for me when I needed more guidance or support. Additionally, I could always speak to my Point of Contact if any immediate concerns arose. As a result, I felt completely supported the whole way through my internship and never felt that there was a lack of guidance.

On a daily basis, I felt that I had the perfect amount of work; I never found myself bored or overworked. I think that having a detailed work plan was a key factor in this. My supervisor was extremely prepared with work to give me and regularly checked in to see whether the amount of work I had was sufficient/not too much.

One of the best aspects of my internship was how much responsibility I had. I was given the freedom to work without feeling constantly watched or micromanaged. My supervisor encouraged me to be innovative and explore my own ideas and thought process. I worked with my supervisor in developing my goals and deliverable timeline, so I never felt pressured into producing a deliverable by an impractical deadline.

The skills I developed and training I received will be incredibly valuable in my future studies and career. Everything I was involved in at my internship was extremely relevant to my field of studies, Business Psychology. I really loved being able to see the things I had learnt at university being put into practice in a professional setting.

Generally, the office was fairly fun. I think the thing that made the atmosphere in the office best was being sat opposite another intern who I worked closely with. Being sat so close together allowed us the chance to converse throughout the day, as well as collaborate on the projects we were each working on. This collaboration definitely enabled me to work more effectively and, I believe, resulted in even higher quality work.

Overall, the internship was set up quite well. I had an organised supervisor who created a detailed work plan. The only suggestion I would make would be to improve the initial paperwork stage before starting the internship. There were a lot of different pieces of paperwork to complete through the online system and, at times, it was slightly confusing what exactly needed to be filled out. Furthermore, not much notice was given between my acceptance on the internship and the start date - I believe around 2-3 weeks. Luckily, I could arrange accommodation without much difficulty, but this could have been a problem for others.

I felt that Bechtel invested a lot of time and energy into my personal development. Early on, my supervisor and team asked what I wanted to gain through this internship, and they helped me as much as possible in achieving those development goals. I was given a variety of different work opportunities that helped in my personal development, and I was free to ask questions about anything that interested me.

Completing an internship with Bechtel definitely helps your employment prospects within the organisation. It also gives you the chance to experience the company culture and the type of work they do, which can help in determining whether this is a place you want to work. I would love to be given the opportunity to work at Bechtel after this fantastic internship experience.

The internship coordinator arranged weekly 'introductory sessions' at the main Bechtel office for the interns. In these sessions, the interns were given introductory talks about different aspects of the company. After these sessions, as the interns were already together in one place, arranging a social event afterwards was quite easy. Having the interns spread out across London (and the UK) sometimes made it difficult to spontaneously meet up. However, having these pre-arranged sessions every week was helpful in maintaining a good social scene.

As I was working in Central London, cost of living and socialising was more expensive than most places, which was to be expected.

One of the benefits of working in London was that the nightlife was great. There were always plenty of different events to participate in or places to visit, so it was impossible to be bored. Another great thing about working in London is that it has great travel facilities, so it is incredibly easy to hop on a train or plane and have a quick weekend visit somewhere.

The NextGen group at Bechtel arranged various different activities outside of work (e.g. softball, Ascot, site visits). One events they arranged was a visit to one of Bechtel's construction sites - Liverpool Street Station. We were given the chance to go in the tunnels and see the work going on, which was a great experience.