Agency Strategy Intern Review

I really enjoyed my work placement. It was a very diverse job role which was ideal for gaining experience, I had lots of freedom and lots of opportunities to explore different skills and meet new people. Throughout my placement I also got the experience lots of different events within the company, from culture changes to a new strategic vision for the company which was insightful.

Everyone I came into contact at work was always supportive and helpful. Due to the different tasks I completed I managed to avoid being typecast into 'the intern' role and more well known as a colleague. Other colleagues put lots of trust in me and provide advice and recognition adding value to me.

I was quite unfortunate with my role, as just as I joined the team went through some reshuffling which meant there wasn't much of a team left, so I had to do most of my work independently. If I needed support and guidance I could get it so it did occur but it was difficult to get it. That being said, the interns and intern supervisors always provided support and help if I needed it, so I always had someone there if I needed help.

I could always find something to do, however my role is very project based, therefore there isn't always a consistent work amount. Some periods I will be extremely busy with very tight deadlines and quite a stressful time, whereas other times it was quiet, but that was the expected nature of my role so I couldn't be controlled.

I was given a lot of responsibility in my role, more than expected. There were times where I was running multiple of my own projects asking senior colleagues to complete tasks for me which was very empowering. I was also involved in strategic initatives and projects that make visible changes to the company.

I have definitely gained skills for life during this placement and gained invaluable experience. From learning a tremendous amount of IT related skills (excel, powerpoint, databases etc.), to learning more about how to communicate, manage and interact with people as well. This experience will greatly help my studies with being able to have a 'real business world' perspective. There were multiple intern sessions created to help improve our skills also, from networking to presentations which drastically developed me as an individual.

Very healthy and positive working atmosphere. There were always people I could go and talk to and communicate with and due to how technological the building and the company is, it was the ideal working space. It also had a great balance of hard working with being human and having a laugh.

It was relatively well organised, with a well structured approach, however due to unfortunate times and events, the organisers had to be quickly adaptable which was difficult, with a large amount going on furlough. Other than that, it maintained a strong structure throughout and provided a clear view of what we were to expect.

They invested a lot of personal training and development such as holding monthly development sessiosn for us to learn new skills and improve on current ones such as presentations, networking and goal setting to improve. It felt like a consistent win-win scenario, with us personally being able to improve ourselves but also added more value to the company as a result.

I feel they are quite appealing with the different projects I can work on, and the previous intern before me stayed on to work part time and then full time. However, due to the unfortunate circumstances, it may have hindered my opportunity to stay on just to recruitment costs etc, but ignoring that I think it was a very appealing future employment prospect.

Yeah there was a good social scene at the start of the placement, with many events occuring. However, due to the size of the internship, it created some difficulties and caused groups to form which started to damn the social scene. That being said I got along really well with all the interns and regularly socialised with a number of them.

Due to the area being quite close to London, the cost of living and socialising was high, especially the socialising aspect with meals out and events being expensive. That being said, I budgeted well and made it work however it took lots of effort and I had to cautious in cases.

Fortunately the location of the placement was in a great space where there was mulitple locations to travel to the experience great nightlife, from being close to London which is capital of nightlife to going closer to Reading/Oxford and Windsor. The only downside to it was the overall of cost of the nightlife but again this was expected.

There were a few, with my close friends all engaging in some great social events together, if it was actually travelling or going somewhere at the weekends. The company also held a social club which was fun and held some great events for the company which was nice to be more relaxed with colleagues. Travelport also had a football club which was great and there was a local gym not far from the office to lots of colleagues went there.