Terminal Operations Intern Review

I really enjoyed my placement year at Heathrow, it was a great, valued break from university, that made me realise what I wanted to do and more importantly, what I didn't want to do as a career in the future. The placement was structured around what I wanted to get out of it, whilst pushing me out of my comfort zone when needed.

Whilst working at Heathrow, I felt like I was always 'part of the team' and never like 'just an intern' as a few of my friends at other companies explained they felt like. I was always involved in key decisions and asked my opinion on changes and developments within the company, which made me feel valued and like part of the team there.

Whilst at Heathrow I was given a line manager within HR, a daily line manager that set me my projects and tasks who I saw on a more regular basis, and a mentor who had done my role previously a year ago, and could give me advice on things maybe I didn't want to go to either of my line managers about.

As I was an operational colleague, meaning that I worked in an office in the Terminals, not full-time at the HQ as most of the other placement students did. I therefore had the freedom to either be busy in the office or go out into the terminal itself and speak to passengers to see what was bothering them. Heathrow gave me the opportunity to be busy if I wanted to be, or quieter in periods where certain projects were taking up more time.

Heathrow was very flexible about the amount of responsibility you were given. If you felt comfortable taking on alot of responsiblity, you were given it and monitored accordingly to ensure you were performing to the correct levels. For example, I took on the organising the operational side - so the Security Operation - for a private event held at Heathrow. The role of this in previous years went to senior managers.

I definitely pushed and developed certain skills without even realising it, being at Heathrow. Very detailed feedback is given to you about your assessment process and what you can improve on in future if you were to do it again. At the time I read the document and threw it in the bottom drawer of my desk, but now, almost a year on, i've learnt from the feedback I was given and realised that the feedback you're given over the year does help you progress as a person.

I worked in 2 offices whilst at Heathrow, the Management Office in Terminal 4 and The Management Suite in Terminal 5 - the latter was shared with a key stakeholder Airline. The atmosphere of both offices differed every day. With Heathrow being such a busy place, dependant on the events of the day or even the week, your office could be the quietest place in the world or it could be a hive of activity. The general atmosphere was business-like, but fun and friendly at the same time.

My year of interns weren't given a 'project' to own like previous intern years. We were also passed between 3 HR line managers in the year we were there. These were the main let downs of the set up of the placement year. This being said, we did all learn that even in a big company like Heathrow, sometimes things don't run as smoothly as you'd of hoped. We learnt to get on with it and we knew where we could go if we had any burning questions or problems.

On my 12 months there at Heathrow, I went on more courses and training schemes than I can remember the names for. Some were optional and some you were expected to go on. You had the ability to go on whatever course or training you liked, as long as you could justify why you wanted to go on it. You were also allowed to shadow key managers, directors and stakeholders as and when.

There are so many different opportunities within Heathrow that I would consider going back to once i've graduated. Heathrow is very flexible, so whilst I was at Heathrow I was given the chance to shadow different departments to understand what I wanted to go into and what I would like to avoid in the future. There is also the graduate scheme which is very popular with previous interns.

At the beginning there was a great social scene as we all grouped together to get to know one another. With my placement and another interns placement not being based at the HQ, and being operational - therefore either in the terminals, in the operations centre or in the HQ. (All within 5 minutes of each other.), we lost touch slightly. But all in all, there was a great social scene.

London itself is very expensive. I lived in Chiswick, so it was one of the more costlier areas of London. I drove to work every day, which was funnily enough, cheaper than the London Underground as I was driving approx. 10 miles there and 10 miles back. All the interns were spread out in where they lived so I can only speak for myself and no one else. I was paying £850 a month in rent.

In the area I worked, there isn't much nightlife. But in London itself there is so much nightlife and depending on where you live and what you like to do, there is something for everyone. You will have to travel on the tube to go to most things, but even in the small area where you live there will be things for you to do.

There were many different opportunities to get involved in when you weren't in work, as London has a number of different opportunities for everyone. Finding someone to do them with may be another problem though as everyone has different working patterns. But there are always new and exciting things to do.