Summer Diversity Internship Programme Review

It was an enjoyable internship and I am glad I've gotten a good look inside the functions of government. However, I did not feel particularly challenged. This is at odds with the extensive marketing the Civil Service Fast Stream has around it regarding challenging and impactful work. If you are after a relatively straightforward 9-5 which pays decently then I highly recommend it.

The people you work with are probably the best thing about this job. Care is taken to ensure inclusion, of which this programme is one of them. However, I feel this may have slightly gone too far... although it was great to be valued, it felt a bit excessive. [This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyPlacement Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions]

Interns are allocated a Fast Streamer supervisor. This supervisor then reviews your work and evaluates whether you hit key criteria in order to qualify for a "Fast Pass" which means, should you wish to apply for the fast stream, you can skip straight to the final round assessment centre. My supervisor was extremely helpful and gave constructive feedback which helped me work towards these targets.

I was not very busy. I was frequently asking for work and sometimes had to be unnecessarily thorough with tasks in order to fill up the time. A good aspect of the scheme is that you are also assigned a fundraising task by the central SDIP programme managers. Focusing on this meant I had a wider variety of tasks to do through the day.

I was given a reasonable amount of responsibility on the placement. It was a shame, therefore, that there wasn't enough work in the team to keep me occupied. I imagine that in a higher intensity team, the responsibilities would be higher and indeed I did find that through talking to other interns.

I developed a variety of transferable skills such as time management and sourcing my own work which will be useful for my future career. Furthermore, I enjoyed gaining insight into the Civil Service, which many people have never had access to. A particular highlight was attending a talk by the Department's Secretary of State's private office, which mean we could have a tour around his office!

The office is open plan and my department operate a system of hot desking. I believe the majority of departments do this. The teams tend to be spread out across different locations in the country so teleconferencing is commonplace. This increases access to the Civil Service however it means that it is harder to form strong relationships with your coworkers.

The internship scheme was organised centrally by the Civil Service Fast Stream. They allocated interns to placements all over the country and in different departments. In light of this, central events were held where all placement students had the chance to meet each other. These included an events before and after the scheme. While the events were well organised, communication between the organisers and the interns could be improved.

The Civil Service is very invested in ensuring top graduates enter the Fast Stream while ensuring diversity of talent. The SDIP and EDIP in themselves are a testament to this. There were also substantial events aimed at helping us understand the Fast Stream Assessment Centre process which should vastly help with success rates at the final stage.

Working in the Civil Service has its pros and cons. On the one hand, it is very exciting to be working on projects which help run the country. Additionally, the people are all very welcoming and generous with their time. However, I felt the atmosphere wasn't very entrepreneurial and if you genuinely want to be pushed and excel, you would be better off looking at different sectors.

There were a few summer events and drinks organised by the team I was placed in. The Civil Service Fast Stream also organised a tour of Westminster and an MOD Crisis Management event which was well attended and very enjoyable. Overall, the number of events and quality was what I expected.

I was in a department in Westminster. Therefore, it was rather expensive to live and socialise there as it is in Central London. However, there are Civil Service functions all over the country and you are able to preference where you want to work so this should not be a barrier to your application.

I was in Central London therefore the nightlife was incredible.

The Civil Service Fast Stream set a fundraising challenge for interns. We worked in teams within our department and organised activities to fundraise money for a charity of our choice. The teams which had raised the most at the end of the scheme were revealed at the end of scheme meeting.