Disaster Recovery Analyst - Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Atos, I feel like I became a valued member of the team here and the department I worked within were extremely welcoming and supportive. The only issue I had was with my actual job role, I was assigned a role that differed to the scheme I applied for, initially I was concerned that the new role wasn't a good fit but I made the most of the year and got some invaluable experience.

My colleagues at Atos made me feel extremely welcome and valued, I offered support in areas I felt I could and they did the same. The people within my department really made my internship enjoyable and enabled me to get involved with a variety of different tasks and working projects.

My line manager was extremely supportive, I also had a mentor assigned that really supported me and ensured I was involved with a variety of projects. I'd say that it's important to make contact with any line manager within Atos as we work so remotely now it can feel like you're forgotten, this wasn't the case for me though, I spoke regularly with my line manager and mentor.

I'd say the internship scheme can vary greatly, sometimes I had so much work I didn't know what to tackle first and other times the workload had died down and I filled a bit of time getting my logbook up to date. I always made myself available to my peers and superiors, this allowed for the opportunity for additional work tasks.

I was given a huge amount of responsibility during my placement, I undertook working tasks that I sometimes felt were too large and too critically important for me to be solely looking after. I'd never say I felt unsupported during these times but I did feel that maybe in a few instances I was given too much responsibility for my skill level at this time. My rating here reflects that I was given possibly a little too much responsibility.

The skills I have gained through working at Atos are more general life and professional skills, as I was placed in a different role to what I had applied for, the work was a lot less relevant to my degree specifically. The professional skills I have gained and how to work within a large company though are invaluable and I feel that the year at Atos gave me an excellent insight in to this.

The atmosphere in the office I worked within was somewhat mixed, there is an excellent community of Graduates, Interns and Apprentices, however, there are also some older members of staff that didn't make us feel welcome as young talent. This wasn't a major issue but worth noting that it's important to make sure the office environment is supportive and we regularly went out for lunch/meals and other social events as a group.

In terms of recruitment, the process was very slow, it was a long time (6 months) from applying to finding out I'd been successful in getting the job. This seems to be a common theme within the company so if you're applying, bare with it, it certainly would be better if the process was more streamlined though. The actual scheme itself has a loose structure with most of the planning left up to your line manager, I was lucky and my mentor gave me a lot of guidance but I know other interns were sometimes left unguided.

There wasn't a lot of opportunities for any formal training, the internal online system allows for courses to be taken which does provide some material but nothing formal. Other than this, there was an initial residential induction which didn't seem overly relevant to the company however was a great opportunity to meet the other interns.

There seems to be a strong possibility as returning as a graduate next year, this is something I'm keen to do, all be it in a different department. Although this isn't confirmed yet it seems to be highly likely that this will be possible. Judging from some graduates in our office, like the initial recruitment, it can be a long process though.

The social scene within Atos can be very hit and miss, for me it was perfectly balanced but depending on which office you're based in depends on what it's like. Some of the offices have a very small GIA community where there are little to no events however in my office we often go out for lunch and meals etc.

I lived at home while on placement so can't really say either way.

The nightlife in Birmingham is obviously good, the office is on the outskirts of Birmingham though so travel in is essential.

Yes! We often took half a day each month as GIA's to do some charity fundraising or other activities in and out of the office. We raised quite a large amount of money, near £500 if I remember correctly for the charity though a coffee morning, raffles and other fundraising activities.