Food Summer intern Review

I very much enjoyed my internship at Tesco. One of the main strengths of the programme was that it brought together the 35-40 interns across the business for regular development days, which meant there was a strong peer support system, as long as that provided within the teams. There was a huge variety in the day to day tasks I undertook, which made the internship both very interesting, as I was constantly learning something new, but also extremely useful in guiding my future career options.

My colleagues made me a key part of the team. By the end of my ten weeks, I was carrying a variety of responsibilities, and had regular contact with people in the business, as well as suppliers and other business partners. To be trusted with this sort of work really showed how much my team relied on me - and I was very sad to leave.

I had both a line manager and a graduate buddy, both of whom I worked alongside on a daily basis, as well as having regular one to one meetings. There were a huge number of people in the wider business who I was put in contact with in order to find out more about the various different roles and responsibilities in the company.

I felt I always had something to do, but not under undue pressure. There were times when I was more busy, or needed to get work done to a deadline - but this added a little excitement, and went to reinforce that what I was doing was necessary to the team and the company.

I was given a lot of responsibility - I was in touch with customers and suppliers on a daily basis, and had to be very aware of the legal training I was given at the beginning of the internship, making sure that I was communicating the right things in an appropriate manner. Although I was given enough room to make my own way, my team were always willing to offer support if I needed to ask questions (which I did - all the time). This meant I could strike a good balance between ownership of the projects, and being supported.

Working in an office with other people has been very different to my degree, but managing the amount of work I have done this summer, compared to at university, has demonstrated to me that I am capable of a lot more than I am currently delivering in my degree. I had the opportunity to go on several excel courses, which will be extremely useful in terms of other jobs. Working on projects with my peers has given me ample examples of leadership skills, which will be very useful in interview situations in the future.

People across the business were always very keen to get involved with the interns, which really added to my experience, and meant I gained a much broader view of the company. Day to day, there was always plenty going on in the office - at the height of summer particularly there were loads of supplier visits, and plenty of samples, which makes the day job a lot more interesting. Some areas of the office have a much more regular routine than my team, but I felt there was a good working environment. Although some serious negotiations took place, any tension did not diffuse into a negative general atmosphere - the teams are very closely bonded and supportive which makes this sort of situation a lot easier.

The internship started with two days out of the office, with the whole cohort together. This allowed us all to bond before we came into the office. which was a definite advantage. Once we were introduced to out separate teams, we had a day to settle in and have general introductions, then had a two day store placement. People were generally well informed about what was going on, but there were some snags in the store placement - one of the more intimidating parts of the internship - because store managers were not fully aware that interns would be on placement. For the duration of the internship I had a graduate buddy, a line manager, early careers contacts, and a 'people' person, all of whom I had regular contact with. At the end of the internship, there was a celebration event, where we could collate an consider what we had learned throughout the ten weeks,

A huge amount of time and resources was invested into the interns. The early careers team made it clear at the outset that they expected us to drive our own development, beyond the sessions that they organised. We had access to the company's online learning, which was very helpful, as well as courses run outside of the office, which were extremely helpful for both the internship and beyond. we had sessions with all sorts of people, from exec level to negotiation master-classes - all of which were extremely useful in getting to know the business. We also undertook an 'intern challenge'. This was an opportunity for us to work with our peers on various short challenges, as well as doing something for charity, which was both revealing, and a lot of fun.

I feel that this internship has been a solid grounding in what it means to work in retail, and has given me a very realistic view of what it would be like to come back as part of the graduate scheme. The opportunities for development I have already been given are very encouraging in terms of coming back next year, but there was also a session at the celebration discussing impartially what we could do with our experience to build on it and gain from it in the future.

It was suggested in the first two days that we have social secs, which was a great. We were privileged to have a very charismatic leader with some very grand plans for the interns, and becuase this came from outside the company's structure and organisation, it was something we could really get in to. The Facebook group set up by early careers before the internship started was very helpful in keeping track of the other people on the scheme - it was allowed to exist with little or no interference from the early careers team.

The offices are in Hertforshire, and cost of living close to London was not cheap. A lot of socialising took place in London, which made it more expensive in terms of travel etc. Most were renting rooms fairly locally, but these were fairly expensive, and a lot of them necessitated a car or use of the shuttle bus (which is free) to commute in to the office.

There were a few pubs, but definitely nothing special. However London is fairly close, and excepting taxis home this was a fairly good option.

There were various activity days run within the teams during working hours, and a company gym, as well as various sports clubs. The charity partnership gets a lot of people involved in community work, which is great, and there is an increasing shift towards more involvement with the local communities.