Employee Benefits - Intern Review

I have thoroughly enjoyed working in the DC pensions team in Leeds during my nine weeks with the Employee Benefits Aon team. I have been treated as an equal in the team and been given meaningful tasks to persue everyday. I highly recommend the Leeds office to any prospective employees.

I was welcomed into my team and into my office from day one onwards. I felt like an equal within my team! When moving through the nine weeks the work given to me increased in difficulty as the team taught me new layers of the work being done. Each team member took time out of their schedule to look through items of work through me to enable me to continue to do them without assistance.

I was given 100% support and guidance from my manager. We had weekly meetings to ensure that I was happy with the work I was doing and to see if there was anything she could do to make my time here any better. I would recieve weekly reviews from the team anonomously on improvements and successes.

I was always busy and if I ever ran out of things to do I could voice this to the team and they would all send things for me to look through with them or work they I could do for them. I never sat idle with nothing to do.

As the internship continued I recieved more and more responsibility within my role. I would never have full responsibility as pensions is a highly regulated area and each item of work must be checked by a consultant and then compliance to ensure that the information is correct. This is highly useful!

I have gained many skills for life including office etiquette, excel spreadsheets. speaking to providers and clients, working within a vast team and many other skills. These skills will assist me in working professionally within a team in my degree course and training me for the world of work once I have completed my degree.

The Leeds Health and Benefits office has a really relaxed atmosphere where colleagues are able to freely talk to each other about work and can integrate within different teams to create a wider knowledge of Aon. Teams work in an agile working space to enable a more relaxed office envronment.

The organisation performed by the Leeds office was seamless and very well thought out. All meetings and conferences with clients and with myself were very well organised and booked in advance. General organisation of the company isn't as high hence the lesser score, but it is at an acceptable level.

The company invested a high amount in training me with the information about DC Pensions and how to communicate with clients on a daily basis. This is an important skill as pensions are so highly regulated. Goals were set for me to reach by the end of the internship and both my manager and I had to keep on top of these.

I hope to be recieving a job offer to return to the Leeds office in the employee benefits sector, after I have completed my third year of university.

The social scene was very good within the office. Many events happened within my internship and most raising money for great causes including a treasure hunt around Leeds, Pub Quizes and several outings during lunch to get to know the team members in a more social setting. This really helped make me feel part of the team.

I remained in my University house whilst doing the internship therefore the cost of living was very similar to that at University. Leeds is a relatively cheap area for socialising compared to London.

There is a large variety of different nightlife opportunities near to the office including bars, nightclubs and restraunts ranging from cheap to high end to enable anyform of social night out. There is also late night shopping all around the office.

There were many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work and many were offered to the entire office. A sponsored three peak walk, pub quiz, treasure hunt around Leeds and my favourite was the opportunity to do Leeds Pride Parade with Aons diversity society.