Operational Transformation Lead Review

I really enjoyed my internship here at Centrica and was really thrown into the deep end as soon as I got here! This was good for me as I felt I was getting stuck in and doing some 'real' work straight away. I had lots of opportunity to undertake my own work and be independent, all with the knowledge that my team would support on anything I needed.

Because I came into the company at a pivotal time of change, it meant there was lots to be done on my team of Operational Transformation. This meant I really was a member of the team and had my own responsibilities straight away and the team works best when everyone inputs their own findings, so it meant I was a valuable member, if not straight away, definitely within a week!

As a brand new member to an established team of around 7, I felt I fitted in straight away and was made very welcome by everybody involved. Support was never far away and never felt too much to ask for with generally daily team meetings so assess where everyone was and if they needed anything from anyone else.

Due to the nature of other people's working schedule, it meant that mid-week was very busy, which I thoroughly enjoyed. However, this then meant that specifically on Fridays when the vast majority of people work from home, it was much slower due to the time taken to get hold of people when you needed them.

I felt I was given an appropriate amount of responsibility versus my knowledge of the company. I had never worked in an energy company before so for the first few weeks, while I had responsibilities, they were limited due to sill being in the learning process. Having said this, I felt that as the weeks progressed, my responsibilities increased and by week 3 I had my own initiatives and truly felt I was a cog in the working machine!

I learnt much more about life in a business setting from this internship having never been in on office, business setting. Stakeholder engagement was also a large part of what I learnt while on my internship and how to manage different people's interest in what the team was doing. I don't necessarily think this will help my with my degree, but will definitely provide the basis of my knowledge for when I get into full-time employment!

I was split between two offices, one in central Manchester and one in Stockport, both having very different atmospheres. Manchester was much more focused and quiet, allowing for complete focus when trying to accomplish tasks. However, Stockport was much busier meaning that things often got done very quickly as everyone I needed to speak to was in close proximity, so it cuts out the time waiting for a response to an email.

Whenever there were lulls in work intensity I took the opportunity to gain qualifications from Workday. This provided courses which I completed in Stakeholder Engagement and Management and Project Management. This felt very worthwhile as it gave me insight into other aspects of work that I may not have had direct experience in yet, but want to explore further at a later date.

As this was a summer internship, I felt it was a good precursor to a graduate scheme, should I be offered one in the coming weeks... I'm highly interested in coming back for the grad placements and I have met many people on the graduate scheme who also highly recommend it.

As I was based in central Manchester this meant it was very east to access everything Manchester has to offer. This meant lots of bars restaurants and activities were available and the vast majority of my weekends were spent in Manchester, especially helped by the fact that Centrica paid the summer interns' rent, and in a very nice apartment too!