Communication and Influencing Intern Review
by Cancer Research UK
This review was submitted over 4 years ago, so some of the information it contains may no longer be relevant.
Rating
-
The Role
4.3
-
The Company
3.5
-
The Culture
3.1
- 1. To what extent did you enjoy your work placement or internship?
- 2. To what extent did you feel valued by your colleagues?
- 3. To what extent were you given support and guidance by management/your supervisor(s)?
- 4. How busy were you on a daily basis?
- 5. How much responsibility were you given during your placement?
- 6. To what extent did/will the skills you developed, and training you received, assist you in your degree studies and beyond?
- 7. What was the general atmosphere in your office?
- 8. How well organised was the overall work placement or internship set up?
- 9. In terms of personal training and development, to what extent did the company or firm invest in you?
- 10. What were the perks on your work placement?
- 11. How appealing are future employment prospects within the organisation?
- 12. Was there a good social scene amongst any fellow placement students/colleagues?
- 13. What was the cost of living and socialising in the area you worked in?
- 14. What was the Nightlife like in the area you worked?
- 15. Were there many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work?
The Role
The placement as a whole has been fantastic. There was a lot of personal development opportunities and the company is really invested in your future career. The work wasn't something I'd like to do in the future but I've enjoyed the projects I've been set and I've learned a lot that can be applied to future jobs
I was given a lot of responsibility over the 12 weeks so I do feel very valued. During my internship I was reassured that I was doing a good job and at the end it it was nice to know that my work was appreciated. I think the fact that I was managing many of my own projects made me feel valued.
My projects were all made really clear by my manager at the beginning which made me feel supported. We had one to one meetings about my internship once a week as well as another one on one once a week to discuss a project I was working on with her. I also felt I could speak to any of my other supervisors really easily.
Because of the nature of my projects this could vary. In general I felt like I always had a good amount of work but sometimes I would have to wait on other people before I could start a new element of the work. If I ever felt that I didn’t enough work I would have been comfortable asking my manager for more.
I was given a lot of responsibility over the 12 weeks so I do feel very valued. During my internship I was reassured that I was doing a good job and at the end it it was nice to know that my work was appreciated. I think the fact that I was managing many of my own projects made me feel valued.
I have not yet gone back to university but I think it will be very useful. Its going to be most helpful because I can use the experiences I’ve had when I write applications for future grad schemes or internships. I’ve been able to learn a lot that I think I’ll be able to use in the future
The Company
The atmosphere could have been more friendly. Although everyone individually was very friendly the office wasn’t particularly sociable. I think this could have been because of the hot desk system and also because a lot of people in my department had mostly individual projects. I always felt comfortable talking to people in the office if I had questions and they were always happy to answer.
The placement as a whole has been fantastic. There was a lot of personal development opportunities and the company is really invested in your future career. The work wasn't something I'd like to do in the future but I've enjoyed the projects I've been set and I've learned a lot that can be applied to
Was really happy with the amount of personal development within the role – CV workshops were great, and loads of things offered that will really help in the future. I did find the personal development pack useful and managed to fill in a fair bit of it but it took quite a long time so I didn’t manage to complete it but I think I’ll refer to it after my internship as a useful tool!
Flexi Time
Subsidised Canteen
Working from home
I think the biggest annoyance for me as someone who is a second year student is that the jobs/grad schemes that were advertised internally weren’t available for me as I have to go back to uni. If there was any way that past interns could be made aware of jobs in the organisation (perhaps after current interns but before its advertised internally?) that would be great.
The Culture
Yes there was a Whatsapp and a facebook group that interns spoke on. There were also weekly drinks after work and we had lunch together most days. There were also many opportunities to bond through team building such as intern fundraising and dragons dens programmes. Though there were some interns that weren’t as involved there were so many of us that it didn’t matter.
I live in London so this wasn’t a massive issue for me. I was able to live for free and commute from home everyday with my parents supporting me. My travel was covered by CRUK which had a limit of a weekly zone 1-6 travel card and we had a lunch allowance of £4 a day.
There are a lot of bars and pubs nearby that we went to. Many of these offered discounts to us because we worked nearby. It is quite an expensive area but there were a lot of options and the discount helped. There are a lot of good travel links so we could go anywhere in terms of nightlife if you needed to
Not particularly. There was the intern fundraising scheme that allowed us to raise money for the charity in teams. There weren’t a lot of other opportunities that I was aware of but it’s possible that I missed these. In terms of doing things after work we often went to work
Details
Internship (1 Month+)
London
September 2017
