Tesco UK GM Intern Review

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at Tesco. I have found everyone to be incredible welcoming and the projects I have been working on are exciting. I am pleased that I have been given responsibility to work on projects which will make a huge difference to the future of Tesco stores. Additionally, the social side of the internship has been great. I have enjoyed the events that the Entry Level Programme team have put on for all of the interns, including the Graduate Sports Day and Graduate Ball. Overall, I have had a great 10 weeks!

It has been great that everyone has valued the interns at Tesco. We have had meetings with all of the directors in the department in order to introduce ourselves and find out about their areas. In these meetings I could see that even the directors were genuinely interested in us.

My programme manager has been a great source of support. Our weekly one-to-ones have been a good way to receive her support and guidance, and to ensure that my work is on track.

It varied each day. A lot of my project work involved liasing with people in different areas of the business. Therefore my workload was dependent on how many meetings I had that day. Sometimes I would reach a point in my project where I needed to liase with some more people before I could continue. If the people I needed to meet with were not available, I would use the time to network across the business. Generally, I felt as though I had the perfect workload balance, because I had a lot to do, but I also had time to build up a network and explore different areas of the business.

I feel as though I have been given a lot of responsibility. I am pleased that the projects I am working on are real projects, rather than a passtime or a test. I did not feel like I was just doing bits of work that my team didn't have time for.

At University I work individually, and my work only reflects my own efforts. It was a huge change to come into the office and work within a team, on behalf of a company. Furthermore, at University I plan my own work, building up to a fixed deadline (exam date). Therefore I had to adapt to the retail industry, which is fast-paced and constantly changing. Overall, the way I have been working is completely different to the way I work at University. This has been great because I have learnt a whole new way of working, which I know will be valuable beyond my degree studies.

The office was a great place to work. I have been able to have fun with my team, but also put my head down and work when I need to. The fact that you can walk up to anyone in the office and ask them a question, without emailing them and formally scheduling time in their diary, is great.

The internship was generally well organised. My first couple of weeks in the office were less so, because my project brief had changed twice and it had not been fully explained to me. However, now that I have been in the company for 10 weeks, I understand that my project brief had to change because it was no longer in the company's best interest. At this point I learn how fast-paced and changing retail is, and that is was the nature of the project that caused it to seem disorganised, rather than a lack of organisation/preparation for my arrival in the office.

I have had scheduled meeting with my assigned Personnel manager. This has been a good way to talk about my personal development during the course of the internship.

I have got a graduate job with them and I will be joining them next year.

There were 92 interns across the business, and four interns in my department. The 92 of us were all together at the induction day, development day, Graduate Sports Day, and we will see each other at the Graduate Ball. However, we are all split up across different buildings in our different departments. Therefore I have socialised most with the other three interns in my department. Although we are split up acorss different teams, we get lunch together every day and have socialised after work. This has been great for sharing experiences and giving each other support. We have become good friends through the experience.

I have been able to live at home, and commute to work every day on the overground. The cost of socialising was reasonable.

Myself and the other interns in my department have been to a nearby pub a couple of times, but we have heard that there is not much nightlife in the area.

There haven't been any socials organised for the interns specifically, but we have been invited to the Graduate socials and activities such as the sports day, the ball, and the charity campaign.