Procurement Summer Intern Review

I really enjoyed my internship, it has been such a great experience and insight into various markets and job roles as well as an enjoyable and challenging experience moving away from my hometown in Durham to London for the Summer.

I felt extremely valued by my colleagues from day 1, my team have certainly been a definite high point for me. Any contributions I made to the team were much appreciated and this made me want to work even harder for them! I didn't feel like I was just their intern but a valued member of their team. Making placements and finding job roles or candidates for them certainly helped as they appreciated this a lot! overall the team made my internship so much fun and taught me a lot, as well as taking good care of me with my big move! This really helped me to settle in well.

I was given great support and guidance from my manager who was very welcoming so I was never scared to ask her any questions and if I needed additional work I was more than happy to ask her if she needed me to help out with anything! We would have weekly catch ups where we would sit down together and discuss what I had learnt and experienced in the week as well as what I found challenging or would like to learn next which was great as it meant that I always knew where I stood with my progression throughout the internship! The Summer Internship Workbooks we were all given at the start during training meant that each week we could tick off what I had done such as BD calls or Candidate searches etc so that I acquired the relevant skills as well as getting a true experience of a recruitment consultant. Potential projects were also listed in the guide and I felt that my manager kept track of my progress very well.

I was always busy on my internship, learning new things everyday and given tasks left right and centre! which I personally would prefer to sitting around and being bored! The days tended to fly by, especially on a morning when you are answering a lot of emails and phone calls and afternoons may have been a little slower and calmer when you would catch up on projects, team meetings or meeting clients and candidates. If I ever found that I didn't have enough work, as any job can get a little slow and tedious, I would ask my manager for a new task or additional work.

I was given a lot of responsibility from my first day which I think was good as it didn't give you time to be scared of answering the phone or calling candidates! I would be thrown into the deep end on occasions and told to brief a candidate on a job I was unsure of and so would do relevant research on both the job and candidate before doing so and this helped me to become more confident! But I liked that I was expected to just get on with things as my confidence and independence grew massively! I managed to help make a placement due to contacting, evaluating and speaking to relevant candidates for the job by the end of my internship! On the client side of things however, your team will predominantly deal with this.

I have acquired a lot more skills than I expected on my internship. I now have a lot of sales experience, as well as IT experience with the systems used within the office. Skills from multitasking to organisation and presentation skills which will certainly help me throughout university. I have learnt how to make a great cv, conduct and take part in interviews confidently, improving my employability, as well as client and candidate management which will be invaluable!

The fun really never stopped in my office! I know that other interns in other offices had different experiences, especially in smaller offices such as slough, but being in the London Southampton Row office was honestly the best placement I could have wished for! My team were always such a laugh and the room would always cheer when consultants wrote a fee on the board which was fab and very encouraging! There were Hot desk days where we would all change places around the office and do Business development and I found that no matter where you were in the office every team was so much fun!

My internship was very well organised, My manager alone would organise projects for me to take part in to build business and market knowledge for the team. From start to end the set up was great and covered all areas I would expect to get insight into during my placement.

The training was fantastic. The talent acquisition team went to every measure to train us in the first 2 training days in Manchester before moving to our offices. It meant that we could meet other interns and train together. It was very personable and trained us well before joining our teams which meant we were more confident when starting the jobs as none of us had ever worked in recruitment before. We all met up for a final presentation 'graduate' day to present our internship development and achievements to each other and it was great to see how all of us had progressed and discuss our experiences.

There is a chance to carry on with the work-and-learn scheme during your final year at university in an office near to you which I know a few interns are doing. There unfortunately isn't an office near to me in Scotland but I have been given the chance to meet teams in another office close to home for the Grad scheme which is very exciting! I have been given this opportunity due to all of my hard work over the summer and if you work to your very best potential and impress your team during your internship you really do get rewarded!

The social side of my internship was great as I became an Intern Rep during my time in the London office. I organised for all of the London interns to get together for meals and drinks etc which was great fun. As well as this, the social scene amongst my team was great as they took me on their Quarterly bonus trip to Ascot for the day which was certainly a highlight during my internship! Other interns had the chance to go cocktail making or white water rafting ! although not all got the chance to do this, I was very lucky!

As expected, it was very expensive to live in London, but I expected this before I moved here and luckily the internship covered the cost of renting in London as well as travel (Which is expensive) and the social side of my stay. Eating and drinking in London is expensive so for socials we would try to choose places with happy hours on drinks or go to the bar downstairs which has a happy hour too. I would try to save my remaining money for weekends to see attractions in London as a bit of a tourist which was a great experience!

The nightlife is good in London and there are lots of cool bars but they tend to be pricey. My team and the rest of the office would go downstairs to a bar on Thursdays and Fridays which became a bit of a fun routine at the end of the week. Organising socials to nightclubs didn't really happen as it is too difficult and pricey for people to get home after about 12pm when the trains would stop.

My team were always organising meals and drinks and I went on their QB to ascot. And the socials were good fun outside of work time with the interns, I made some really good friends who I know I will stay in contact with after my internship!