Summer Vacation Student Review

I enjoyed the placement because the people were really friendly and welcoming and I felt that everyone enjoyed working with each other within the team. I found some of the work interesting and some less so, but everyone tried to make sure I had things to do, which was good.

My colleagues really valued what I had to say and seemed really appreciative of the work I was doing, they all treated me like a colleague and did not patronise me or exclude me from the group. I felt like I could talk to them as an equal, and they respected me.

I was given an amount of support and guidance by my supervisor, who tried to make sure I always knew what I was doing, and I could go to him if I had any questions. Sometimes I was at a loss for what to do and felt a bit directionless.

I was not very busy at all. In the first few weeks I was quite busy but then this dried up. This wasn't my supervisor's fault, just that not many people even on the team had much to do as summer is a quiet period for that team, so they sometimes struggled to find themselves work, let alone me.

I was given the right amount of responsibility in my opinion, I was given tasks to do by myself and I was allowed to talk to clients and attend real meetings, but I never felt out of my depth, and I felt that if I did something wrong accidentally the blame would not fall entirely on me.

It is difficult to say at this stage, but I'm really glad I got the chance to learn the SQL code and the Tableau software in particular as Tableau knowledge seems highly sought after in the workplace. I think the presentation and communication skills I developed will also help me in the future.

The atmosphere was good, everyone was friendly and supportive, we all went for lunch together every day and it didn't feel like anyone was too serious about their work. I didn't talk much to the other teams who shared the same office, so I'm not sure about them, but I thought the atmosphere was overall nice.

After I got the offer, the experience was faultless, HR organised everything very smoothly and I felt very much connected and supported. Before I got the offer, I had had no communication from the company for about five months, so that could be improved, and the interview process was too digital so I didn't meet a single person from the company until I started.

They paid for an induction day in London, and linked me to a page where I could watch training videos. I didn't go on any training courses as the ones that were running didn't seem relevant. The company was unwilling to pay for me to go to London for some of the work as that was deemed too expensive.

Quite appealing, I think they would be a really good company to work for and the people around me would be really great to work with. My only issue is that I'm not sure I would enjoy the actual work, it is very finance-heavy and I'm looking for something a bit more creative.

There was a fairly good social scene, I think a lot of my colleagues did social things together although I wasn't really part of that, but there was an organised social at the end of the placement which was really fun, and I got invited to the pub one time as well.

I live here anyway so it wasn't any more than what I'm used to, living and socialising will always be fairly expensive where I live. This wasn't really related to the job though, I never felt pressured into having a more expensive social life or anything like that.

Again, I live here so I know the nightlife from university more than from the job. It has really good nightlife, lots of gigs always on and some big club nights, although these are always expensive. There's a wide variety of things to do, so there's always something on.

To be honest not really, I heard vaguely about various schemes and things but was never made clear on what these were. I think if I actually joined the company I would have better access to things like volunteering or doing trips for charity but as an intern I didn't really have access to these things.