Learning and Development Intern Review

I had a home-based role and I can positively say that I really enjoyed myself. This was a great internship over the summer period and I learnt a lot from the projects I worked on and the colleagues I met.

I 100% felt valued by every person that I met at Macmillan. I felt that all the colleagues cherished interns working at the organisation and always want to help them in any way possible. For me, it was lovely to see that people that I met on the internship, and who I talked to, did not belittle me or made me feel inferior to them. This is something I appreciated because it made me feel confident when asking them questions when I had doubts, instead of feeling shy and intimidated.

My intern manager, programme manager, mentor and other colleagues were very supportive throughout the period of my internship. My programme manager always had regular catchups making sure that all interns were alright with their work and how they are feeling. There was frequent communication through email and I also had phone calls and face to face meetings with my intern managers, so I definitely felt supported. My intern manager and mentor gave me plenty of advice whenever I wanted help with work or personal issues.

I was not too busy on a daily basis. To start, this internship was a part-time basis, so I was working 3 days a week, so it was not too intense. However, the work I was set was not much; the duration of the internship meant that I had one project after each other, but everything was doable if you managed your time properly!

All projects I did had some degree of responsibility but I was not pressured to take on too much work. I actually enjoyed doing more work for the department! One of the projects that I worked on had a lot of responsibility as I was initiating a pilot evaluation study that was to be carried into the next year - "so no pressure!" as my intern manager said!

I felt that my skills were used well and enabled me to further develop them in this internship. I was able to apply the knowledge that I had learnt from lectures at university to my projects in this internship, which was very useful. One colleague was particularly impressed by the knowledge I had of analysis in market research (which was needed for a project I worked on). I'm glad that although the research-based modules/lectures I attended at uni were dull and dry, they certainly helped in the workplace.

As I was home-based, I did not have much of an office setting unless I was travelling to London for training courses. When I was in London, in their offices, it was a good atmosphere with everyone being very friendly and supportive. Honestly, absolutely everyone I have met has been so cool and friendly - almost seems too good to be true as you always get some people who are not on your wavelength!

Very organised. We (fellow interns and I) were always well informed about the training courses that we needed to attend weeks in advance and were also notified of any room changes ahead of the scheduled date.

In terms of personal development, the programme manager encouraged all interns to get in touch with her and she always pointed us in the right direction for us to learn more information about our chosen area of interest and/or referred us to some of her colleagues who were specialists in the area we wished to know more about. We were all assigned mentors in the areas of discipline we wanted to gain experience which was fantastic because it made us more aware of the day-to-day operations in the particular field and the required skills etc. The only disadvantage I would say was that some courses that they were put on for us were not as useful as they could of have - i.e. - did not enhance our knowledge for employment, but rather just reinforced what we already knew.

Having worked in Macmillan and knowing more about what the company does, I would love to come back here and work full-time!

There was not much of a social scene; as I was home-based, I did not get to see much of the other interns, who were all based in the main Macmillan offices in London. Only occasional trips to London for training courses meant that I was able to meet the other interns or colleagues and have lunch with them, apart from that, an almost non- existent social scene haha

Living at home + no social life = you bet your bank account is loving you am I right?

Birmingham based, so there is a great nightlife in this city. There are various activities you can do - dining out in restaurants, going out to the movies, watching theatre plays/shows, clubbings, bars, the list can go on.

Yes, there was an opportunity to join sports clubs and society. I did not join any though.