Stand Up To Cancer Intern Review

I really enjoyed my internship at Cancer Research UK in the Stand Up To Cancer team. It is a very organised and well-established scheme which made the whole process smooth and convenient. Everyone I met was friendly and welcoming. I was happy with the work/tasks I was given and there were lots of intern and extra activities to get involved in such as personal development sessions, intern fundraising and volunteering.

My colleagues were very welcoming and supportive. Individual members of the team had one to ones with me so I could get to know them and so they could answer any questions I had. They offered to help me with my CV and interview practice. They set me useful tasks and projects which not only helped developed my skill set but also contributed to the team's work and the campaign. I felt like part of the team, not just a temporary intern.

This varied quite a bit. Most of the time I had a reasonable amount of work to do each day. Leading up to Stand Up To Cancer week I was busy supporting with various staff fundraising activities. My workload dropped after Stand Up To Cancer week, however once I voiced that I had little to do, my manager sent around an email to our team and I was set a number of different tasks related to next year's campaign and how we can make it bigger and better. I never felt like I was too busy or stressed.

I feel like for an intern I was given a fair amount of responsibility, I was given the task of sourcing prizes for our annual staff fundraising auction and writing the copy for the website. I was also responsible for distributing over 1300 tickets for one of our fundraising events. I also represented the organisation at various different high value events and took payments for high value auction prizes.

Our intern coordinator organised personal development sessions. These included workshops for CV and Cover Letter writing, how to present your LinkedIn profile and delivering presentations. Furthermore we were pointed in the right direction and given the necessary information for anything extra we wanted help with developing. In general, I learned how to take responsibility and become more confident in completing important tasks and talking to internal and external stakeholders.

The office was a great place to come in to every day. Everyone is very sociable and friendly, mingling with one another all the time. Teams and individuals support each other whenever needed. There is always an unlimited supply of delicious baked goods and a kitchen area in each department equipped with a fridge, microwave, boiling water etc so whatever you need it available. There was also always various fun filled fundraising activities taking place.

From the very beginning to end the internship was a very smooth process. My manager and intern coordinator were both very well organised and having both been interns also very familiar with the process and they had all the answers to any question I asked. We were given a personal development pack to make any notes on progress and our role across the 12 weeks and also to keep notes on our one to ones with our manager. Our intern coordinator also kept in touch to ensure everything was going well.

Many many of the employees I came across in the organisation had previously been interns here and the internship is a great way to get into the organisation. Some people get jobs during the internship or straight after and others leave and then come back. We are kept in the loop about any entry level roles that become available during and after the internship.

We were reimbursed for our travel expenses and up to £4 a day on lunch. There were lots of places you could get lunch for £4 such as the canteen, Sainsburys, Waitrose, M&S, Pret, Starbucks etc. However there were lots of other great food places that always tempted us to spend over our limit but it was worth it and if you spend £6, it's only really £2 as you'll get £4 back. There was a local pub that offered CRUK 20% discount off food and drinks which was great and Hummingbird Bakery next door which offered £1 hot drinks.