Talent Acquisition Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement year at Siemens. I have had an amazing team of people supporting me throughout the year and it was a fantastic experience overall. Doing a year long internship has helped my confidence massively and I definitely feel more prepared for getting a job after university.

I was always treated like a permanent member of the team and I never felt like I was an intern. I had a great team where no question was a stupid question and I always had people to talk to if I needed support or advice. Overall, I felt very valued by my colleagues.

My manager was very supportive throughout my year and always made sure I had interesting tasks to work on, as well as making sure I did not have too much of a workload. We had weekly catch ups throughout the 12 months which allowed me to ask for support if needed and allow my manager to manage my workload.

My workload differed depending on what stage of the recruitment cycle we were in at any given time, so it was never a steady stream of work. For example, I was particularly busy in October and November with travel, but after this period my workload decreased, only to pick back up again around February. However on the whole, I would say it was fairly balanced.

I was given massive amounts of responsibility throughout my year and I ended up taking sole responsibility for the end-to-end recruitment of entry level talent. At first it was quite daunting to be given this much responsibility but it was such a good learning experience and I was always supported by members of my team.

I have developed and learnt so many new skills in the past 12 months which will prove invaluable in my future career. For example, learning how to use recruitment softwares, finance softwares and other corporate technologies has been incredibly useful. I've also developed my presentation skills and communication skills extensively through training modules I have undertaken throughout the year as part of my Internship Development Programme.

Although some days could be quiet if a lot of the team were out, on the whole it was a buzzing and friendly atmosphere. It was never silent and I worked on a pod of 6 desks with some of my team and it was always fun on our pod! The atmosphere of the office was a contributory factor in wanting to come to the office every day!

It was well organised from start to finish. I had an organised handover at the beginning of my placement and structured learning modules/training throughout the year. The process of taking on year long placement students and training them is a well established practice at Siemens and this is highlighted by the organisation of my year.

Personal development was something that was invested in by Siemens as part of the Intern Development Programme through 3 modules. These modules helped me improve my own personal skills, such as confidence and creating a growth mindset. Therefore I would say that Siemens do invest substantially in personal and professional development of their interns.

Unfortunately in my team there are no graduate jobs available as they only take on interns. However, I would be open to the idea of working in a different department in the future, but I would love to work for Siemens in the future as I really enjoyed my placement there.

The social scene with the other interns in my office was really great. We frequently met up with each other after work and did lots of social activities together outside of work, such as going bowling, going to the cinema and going on day trips to places nearby. The social aspect of the placement was one of the best parts of my year.

I lived at home with my parents for my placement year so I didn't experience first hand what the cost of living is like in Frimley. Overall it is a relatively expensive area, but a lot of the interns this year lived in shared houses which helped with the cost of living. In regards to socialising, there were lots of cheaper and more expensive options for socialising so you could pick and choose depending on budget.

The nightlife is very poor in Frimley as the office is in a small town, however Reading and Guildford are relatively close by and they have a much better nightlife. Also, London is accessible by train from Frimley, so there are plenty of options around for a good night out.

Although I wasn't involved in any activities outside of work, there are some opportunities to get involved in non work related activities, such as an onsite choir at the Frimley office. Interns also get a few volunteering days for the year which provide opportunities to go and help out at various events.