Data Analyst Review

It was reasonably slow to start with. There was a week of training which was very insightful, followed by a week or so of getting to know the team and meeting with all of the team members to get to grips with everything going on. Once I got into the rhythm it was very enjoyable.

The projects that I did were particularly useful to the team in terms of offering support to customers, and it was made apparent to me the value I was providing to the team, both directly by my team members and indirectly by the product of my work seeing use while I was still in the intern position.

Whenever I asked for support I was given it, by both my line manager and placement manager. My role was quite independent of the team but whenever I was stuck or required assistance everyone was happy to make some time where possible to assist with my problems. This ties into the value again, where I was not ignored but treated as part of the team.

I feel like in most cases I was reasonably busy, and the amount of work I received was dependent on how much I asked for. I feel like if I made no fuss I would have likely been left wanting work, however I my team did inquire into whether I was enjoying the work and if I had enough to do during fortnightly meetings.

I was left to my own devices to contact our customers, and I was trusted with plenty of different situations from leading meetings to organically going and sorting out my own work. At one point when I asked whether I could be of help to a project, I was asked if I wanted to lead in the production of the project, which I was happy to do.

Difficult to asnwer this as I'm still in the placement, however I do feel like I've learned skills that I wouldn't have if I had just worked in a summer job (e.g. retail) over the summer instead of doing an internship. Furthermore I feel like I've learned interpersonal skills and commercial awareness, which I was extremely unlikely to learn in a university environment.

Depending on in which office I worked in, I would be in a reasonably quiet office where I could knuckle down and get work done without being distracted, or I could be in a more lively office where it was easy to collaborate. However I was allowed to choose where I worked for the most part, and I feel like a balance between the two meant I could get work done and also meet with other interns and graduate students to have a chat or get advice.

Everything from training for a full week (of a 12 week program) to having regular reviews and chats with placement managers was extremely well done and thought out. From day 1 we were given everything we needed and there was another 2 days of training set up for all of the interns to consolidate what we had learned during the placement.

Spending over 10% of your time doing formal training is unprecedented, especially in an internship where time is limited. I was thoroughly impressed by the amount of time we spent learning, it's very clear that National Grid invest in their employees.

Extremely, if I am offered a graduate placement I will take it absolutely.

We would meet at least once a week after work for drinks, everyone lived in the same area and we were in constant contact, including having lunch together.

The cost of living is very high, however the town has plenty of cheap pubs and nights out, so going out was not breaking the bank.

Pubs and clubs were all around since it is a student town.

The social aspect of outside of work was definitely encouraged, for example charity work and sports teams.