Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my 9 week summer internship at Aon. It was a fantastic experience that has given me a huge amount of understanding and experience that I look to build on in the future. My manager gave me plenty to work on do I was never not busy, and this meant that I felt valued throughout the 9 weeks.

Obviously, it took me a bit of time to feel valued by my colleagues as they needed time to assess my ability and level of understanding before giving me the responsibility to work on projects/deals. However, as the internship went on I was busier and busier, with my busiest week being my final one.

My manger was incredibly helpful and was always around to answer any questions that I had. My manger and team made it clear from the outset that they did not expect me to be fluent in the technical language/understanding, and were very helpful and supportive in answering any questions that I had.

My manager made sure I was always busy. He set me a number of projects to do throughout the 9 weeks that I could work on when I was not busy helping out on deal/project work. Importantly these projects were a good reference point for everyone, including myself, to assess what I had achieved throughout the internship, alongside where I had helped the team out.

I was by no means running the show, but my responsibility was perfectly proportionate to my technical understanding and level of experience. The responsibility I was given increased as my technical understanding improved throughout the 9 weeks. My team made it clear that they did not expect me to be perfectly versed in the technical knowledge, but gave me the opportunity to learn and consequently increase the level of responsibility that I was given.

I gained a lot of skills that are obviously transferable to my degree studies and the general work place, such as time management skills, interpersonal skills and technical skills such as Microsoft PowerPoint and Excel. However, I also gained a number of technical skills, such as using Bloomberg, SNL and Pitchbook, plus technical knowledge of corporate finance and the insurance industry.

The office had a very supportive and open atmosphere, which meant everyone from an intern to the CEO could raise issues or feel as if they were making a difference. The office hotdesks, which means on a number of occasions I sat next to different people and there were no barriers between teams.

The internship was very well organised and we were constantly kept in the loop. The only criticism I would have is that the time between receiving my offer and receiving details about the internship (e.g. what team, start/end dates) could have been shorter. This would have had given me the opportunity to plan my summer holiday more easily.

Yes, Aon definitely invested in me. We spent the first week of the internship in training sessions that developed our soft and technical skills. It was very obvious that the company has put a lot of planning and money into this, which made us all feel valued from the outset.

Very appealing. Aon seems like a fantastic company to work for, and it was made clear from the outset that out internship should be treated like a 9 week interview for the graduate scheme. This indicated to us that if we impressed we had the opportunity to open doors for ourselves and join the graduate scheme.

There is an ok social scene among fellow interns. There are no organised social events throughout the internship. The social scene is a good as you make it, as it is up to you to socialize. Little is put on for you. I was lucky enough to have a very social team who invited me to a lot of events.

I lived at home, so had no cost of living apart from lunch. Socializing and lunch are what you expect for London. You'd have to be an idiot if you were working in London and expected low cost of living and cheap places to socialize.

It is London.

Obviously I was only there for 9 weeks so there is not a lot of time to join in activities outside of work such as company sports teams or other clubs. However, we were told on many occasions and in great depth that there are a number of opportunities for grads and full time employees. However, this was not something that I researched in too much detail