UKI ONELead Programme Leader Review

The first few months were rather difficult due to structural changes within the company, meaning my job role changed. It took me a while to get into the swing of my new role, but after about 3 months I really got to grips with it. From then on, I really enjoyed the placement - the role opened up a lot of opportunities for me, including networking, presentions, development of processes and analysis of data.

I received a lot of praise from senior management and my collegues throughout my placement. It made me feel that my contribution to the company was valued and they appreciated my support. At the end of my placement, I was selected as one of the top interns of the year which made me feel really valued.

I had monthly meetings with my manager, he checked up on my progress and how I was feeling in the role. And if I needed any other support between these monthly meetings, I knew I could speak to various other colleagues and mentors.

I was very busy day-to-day with ad hoc and routine tasks, but I was able to balance these through various prioritisation and organisation methods.

I was given a lot of responsibility - I looked after a multi-million dollar incentive for the UK&I. I represented the incentive on worldwide meetings, ran reports, communicated results and other updates, ran training sessions for sales teams, and other various activities.

Working in a real business environment will help me when I am back at university, as I have seen how business processes work in a real life situation. I received training on organisation, time management and other key skills, which will help me to prioritise my workload and contribute to my working ethic.

During the strucural changes the moral was very low, but this soon changed. The mood picked up and the atmosphere improved

Overall it has been good, but during the structural changes we could have been given more support. Another thing to improve would be a more clear description of potential graduate roles and when/ how to apply.

We had 3 or 4 meetings over the year on personal training, i.e. CV Workshop, but there could have been more, with a bit more structure so that we could develop different skills. It was encouraged to get a mentor at the beginning of the year, which I did, and this has helped me with my personal development.

If I had the right job and manager, I would potentially come back into the company. But, I will be exploring other possibilities for a grad role after uni.

As there were 50 other interns in the office there was a good social side. We went out once a month all together, and then some people went out a couple of times in between that.

Reasonable, not as expensive as London, but not cheap!

Fairly good, but you have to make it better with the group of people you go out with. The clubs have a variety of music and are often busy but small, so can get crowded.

Within the intern cohort, different groups of friends did different activities outside of work. But nothing, apart from going out, was ever arranged. Aside from our job role, we had to get involved in charity work, which added something a bit different to the everyday job.