Finance & Commerical Intern Review

Heathrow is an enjoyable place to work, if you have a passion for the aviation industry you'll love it. It's a particularly exciting place to work at the moment due to due preparing for Heathrow's Expansion. Due to the unique nature of the business, Heathrow has every job imaginable and a wide range of opportunities to explore roles outside of your daily job.

I went through 4 rotations in my 11 months so at times it was hard to get fully involved as I would only be there for around 3 months. Each team made me feel very welcome and I made many friends across the business but as I wasn't there for too long a lot of my work was ad hoc.

The support provided at Heathrow is very strong, they have a team in People (HR) called Emerging Talent who oversee your entire programme and are available for catch-ups to see how you are getting on. You are also given a 'buddy (a graduate) and then have your line manager who is your day-to-day manager and oversees your workload.

When I arrived it took a long time for us to be given sufficient work, I'm unsure if that's down to managers not being ready for us or if they didn't want to stress us out. As the year went on and from team to team, my workload varied, sometimes I was very busy which I loved and other times I found myself consistently asking for work, which they didn't really have to give to me.

Again, this varied from team to team. Some teams were smaller and I was able to be given a lot of responsibility which I enjoyed, but other teams I didn't get that much - Heathrow is a big company remember. However, a lot of it is down to you, there is always the possibility to get involved with lots outside of your job such as giving airside tours and leading work experience.

You learn A LOT, even when you don't think you're learning anything you are, little things like how to behave in a corporate environment vs in education. Soft skills are becoming a big focus at Heathrow (and the wider corporate world), so the focus is shying away from 'how to use Excel' to 'how to be an adaptable team player' with an emphasis on leadership and communication.

General atmosphere was good, as I was in Finance it was one of the quieter floorplates and I definitely felt my age but generally speaking everyone is very nice and talkative. Expansion, Commercial & People tend to be the younger, more atmospheric environments but it was still an enjoyable place to work.

Heathrow do put a lot of effort in to you, they invest a lot and want the year to work very well for you. You definitely get the feeling that they are focussed on your personal development. There is still however more to be done to make sure we have enough work to do and that the work is challenging. You have to go through a tough application process, so the work should match our ability.

One of my favourite things about Heathrow is their focus on our development. We have monthly meetings as a cohort with Emerging Talent to discuss our development, get talks from important & influential people around the business and we all set up a Personal Development Plan at the start of the year that is frequently revisited with our line managers. They also provide a number of really interesting courses free of charge, these courses were originally intended for managers but have allowed interns to attend as well, such as Insights, Purpose & Values and Your Mind Matters. You wouldn't get the opportunity to do these courses anywhere else and they really do force you to see things in a completely different perspective.

Heathrow aren't currently amazing at offering jobs or places on the Future Leaders graduate scheme but they are getting better! The jobs are dependent on what will be available in the future which is understandable but they should do better at offering places on the grad scheme to individuals who do well on the internship, I'm aware they are trying to do this and are currently taking steps towards it.

The social scene is OK, every Friday once in a while we may go to the local pub with a few of the grads but this isn't very regular and certainly isn't organised by the company. Due to the location of Heathrow, there aren't too many cheap or near options although the Heathrow Express does get you to London in 15 minutes. Most of the social events I organised myself so it depends on how your cohort are.

I lived at home for the duration of my placement year as I already in Greater London, but for the interns who had to move here it is reasonably expensive as expected. Although it's not central, you are still within London and the prices of living and going out for a drink and more expensive than elsewhere in the UK.

I can't name a single club near Heathrow, Uxbridge would probably be your closest nightlife but that isn't anything to shout about. Your best off going in to central London as most other employees do if they plan to go out after work. If we didn't have good discount on the Heathrow Express and it wasn't as quick the nightlife would be miserable.

Lots! Heathrow is an exciting environment to work in, there are many chances to go out to career's fairs at local universities and schools and inform students of opportunities here, you can also get involved with leading the work experience and show students what happens behind the scenes at Heathrow. It is also actively encouraged to shadow other people's roles to learn more about what they do.