Volunteer Reward and Recognition Project Intern Review

Thoroughly enjoyed my internship right from the first day to the end.

Very valued - they were very welcoming and caring, especially when I first started. They all made an effort to take time out of their schedules to go through individual inductions and explain their roles.

Great level of support from management - not too much so that it was patronising, but not too little so that I didn't know what to do. There was a good balance of helping me understand things I was unsure of and allowing me to figure things out on my own terms and without pressure.

As the internship was project-based, I always had various tasks to complete within the projects. This was good as I felt like I had goals and targets to reach and I could plan my time around each individual task with the help of my internship planner spreadsheet that my line manager put together for me. It included everything I was working on but allowed me to edit and adapt some tasks to suit me better, or even take things out that I felt were not necessary or add tasks that I felt would improve the success of the projects. My line manage was flexible with my decisions and always allowed me to change it within reason. Although I was busy, I did not feel that the workload was excessive or irrelevant.

The responsibility given to me was relative to the importance of my role within the team. As an intern, the projects that I worked on and completed were not neccessarilly vital, although did contribute to very important changes that will hopefully be made in the future. I have started projects that initially did not exist and so this gives them the opportunity to build on what I have done. These tasks were things that no one had time to do, so had I not completed them, it may have taken the team much longer to make changes in particular areas. It was a priviledge to complete the projects as I felt that the team trusted me with important tasks. Most projects were solely mine, whilst other ones were collaborative.

I have mainly built on skills I already had, like bettering my Excel skills, working and liasing with many different people in an office environment, promoting events in different ways and analysis and evaluation of projects and tasks. There was a range of training courses and 'lunch and learn' sessions that I could attend, which were great in that they help you to see Macmillan as a wider organisation, not just the team you work in (very useful to learn about other teams as it's such a big organisation - it helps you to understand the overall charity better). Apart from this, the experience of interning at Macmillan has given me a lot of satisfaction in knowing I have contributed to such an amazing organisation. It was such a good environment to be in, from all the staff members, to all the hard work they put in for a great cause. It is a very inspiring, positive and motivational place to be at. Ultimately, the experience has been invaluable to me and has most definitely impacted my decision on what I wish to do in the future.

It was a very warm atmosphere, with all staff members being very inclusive of me. There was a general feeling of sharing and caring, which gave me confidence to ask for help if I needed it. I never felt pressured or judged.

The internship was very organised. I received a folder with everything I needed to understand for the duration of my time there. It did take me a while to understand everything though and get my head around how my work would lead to their outcomes, but that was just the initial start. After I settled in properly this wasn't an issue as I learnt more about the relevance my projects and tasks.

All interns were allowed to sign up for training courses like 'writing for Macmillan', which helps you to understand the writing style and fit in with the feel of Macmillan. I was encouraged to attend these and also events outside of the office, like the Cancer Voices Conference, whereby all my expenses were paid for incuding lunch.

Potential roles are appealing to me and there are many interns who have secured jobs within the organisation, although I have not yet decided whether to pursure a career in the charity sector yet.

All interns were very friendly and inclusive. People would meet up at lunch and also after the office for social evens. There were three interns who organised events and also created a Facebook group where we could suggest and decide on ideas for socials.

Although not as expensive as central London, costs were still fairly expensive.

Unsure about this as I didn't really attend events like these.

There were many advertisments of events that were going on throughout the office and anyone was able to attend. These included yoga classes, film nights and other team events.