Intern for Employee Benefits Review

The internship was very enjoyable and informative about both the sector and the company as a whole. I was in Employee Benefits and before I applied I had a limited understanding about this sector, but after 8 weeks, I have gained an in-depth understanding and I have interacted with people from other teams.

My team (Risk Broking- centre of excellence) has been amazing to me. They have been very helpful and lovely, they are always available to assist me with work that I'm set and to answer any questions/queries that I have. I have also interacted with the health broking team, who I also consider to be part of my team- as whenever I have run short on work, they have given me a task to complete or something else to keep me occupied.

My manager has been very supportive and engaged manager, who has scheduled weekly updates in our diaries and has always answered any queries or questions that I have almost instantly. He has made sure that I have been set enough work to keep me occupied and busy. Also, when work from the team has not been enough- Ben has set me research tasks on projects that he is involved in. This has been really interesting as I have been able to gain an insight as to what Ben's roles are as a consultant in Employee Benefits. Vanessa has been my supervisor in the risk broking team, and she has also been incredible and has been very welcoming and has always been on hand to support me with tasks and queries that I have had.

Initially, for a month, I was not that busy at all- as the team have not had work that they could give me as most of their work requires one to be comprehensively trained. However, I continued to send emails out to people in the office, who also work in employee benefits, but different teams. I also flagged this up with my manager, who told me to wait for a while and gave me a few tasks to keep me occupied. Eventually, he spoke to the team and found me a few projects to work on, which gave me exposure to the different businesses in Aon and the work that they do.

I was given a fair amount of responsibility, as I was allowed to manage my time and work on the various projects I had accordingly. Also, when my supervisor left for annual leave, her work was split across the team and some work was passed onto me- and so it was nice to be busy and to be able to work independently, as I had received training for the projects that I had been set beforehand. Aon's attitude to agile working meant that I was also allowed to work from both London and Farnborough, as I live in London and it is easier for me to get to the offices there. This was quite nice as I was able to plan my days when I was in Farnborough, as my team is based there, so I could utilise the most out of my days there where I was able to receive feedback and schedule catch-up sessions. However, I do feel that I could have been given more responsibility by my team.

This internship has allowed me to interact with different teams and learn about the differences businesses within Aon. As it has given me the confidence to approach people in the organisation and to learn more about their role and if there was anything that I could do. In this sense, I was able to expand my network and work on my personal brand, as I became a recognisable face and was asked if I could assist people in a task or so.

Everyone in the office was lovely and had time for a catch-up/chat! I went for team lunches quite often, which was quite nice. But, quite a lot of the time some of the team members would work from home because the renovations occuring in the office meant that there was no air-conditioning, which was rather diffcult to work in especially when it was 30 degrees outside.

It was well organised in the sense that we were given managers and supervisors who took care of us at work, and made sure we had work to do and were maximising our opportunites and asking as many questions as we could. We were also allocated CSR projects, which we allocated half a day working on- which was quite organised and useful. However, in terms of the actual work in our teams- I felt like it was disorganised as I didnt have a project to work on for a very long while.

We participated in training for 3 whole days at the start of our internship, which was very useful as the company invested in a session that worked on confidence and on personal branding. We also attented mandatory lunch and learns, which was quite useful, as they gave us an insight into the different businesses in Aon and answered our questions and queries.

The future employment prospects within the organisation are very appealing, as each day is different within employee benefits. This allows for a variety of work and the scope is unlimited, as I have learnt so much that I would probably not have learnt about in depth. Such as, the importance of pensions, the medical and health perks that companies offer- so i'm able to talk to friends and family about whether they know if their employer offers perks and start discussions around what they think of this. It is a sector that I feel very passionate about the sector in which I have been interning in and I do believe that the work would be very varied, which is somehting that excites me.

As interns we saw each and kept in touch with each other every day, and organised unofficial meals, catch-ups, and nights out in London. As London is where most of us live, even if we are based in regional offices. Overall, I believe that all of us interns got along with each other well and I definitely will be keeping in contact with them in the future.

It was an expensive commute to Farnborough as I live in London, but other than that Farnborough is a fairly inexpensive place- in regards to grabbing lunch and has a fairly limited socialising area. But, London is not as expensive in terms of socialising, because there are always deals in place for students and there is a great variety.

In Farnborough, there doesnt seem to be a nightlife and as I live in London and agile working is something that is encourage in London, I was able to work from Londn for half of the time. So, the nightlife in London is very good and there is an unlimited variety.

I don't think that there were many opportunities, as work didnt have weekly socials etc.