Transport & Mobility Intern Review

On my day to day, I would contact my manager to see what tasks I could help out with. I would be given a brief explanation of the project and task that I had to carry out, which would vary greatly depending on the impending deadlines and what was needed at the time. These ranged from reviewing and formatting presentations and reports, to more complex tasks like transport demand models.

I developed my excel skills immensely, and had quick contact with InDesign and GIS software. In terms of soft skills, I carried out a lot of research both online and going through existing documents for projects and extracting information. I practiced producing diagrams that summarize and present key information clearly and aesthetically.

I was given quite a lot of responsibility during my internship. The files and models I worked on and the data the they produced was used in presentations and reports that were going directly to clients. When these were reviewed by them, it was sent back to me to change after discussing with my manager.

I joined the team at a time where it was really overwhelmed with multiple projects. This meant that my manager struggled to give me a lot of attention and could not really focus on the educational aspect of my internship. However, he still offered guidance and made himself available as much as possible to offer his support if I struggled with any task.

Given my short time in the company, and that the COVID pandemic meant no one in the team came into the office, I did not get to experience much of the company culture. However, I did get the impression that they were quite social and that there was a focus on building team dynamics. I would have appreciated a greater effort to introduce me into the team aside from my manager.

Overall, I did enjoy my experience. I would have liked it to be a bit more educational, and a greater balance between simple, menial tasks and more complex work that required using new software and skills specific for the sector. At times they were so overworked that I spent hours sitting at my desk with no work, so I would have appreciated being assigned a project to work on for the whole duration of the placement.

Yes

Ask from the start if there is any project that you could be assigned to for the entirety of your internship, one that you could work on in between fulfilling specific tasks that you would be assigned to on your day-to-day basis. Ask your manager later on if you could contact other members of the team and work for/with them, they will have other opportunities for you and you could build a wider network.