August 28, 2016, by Danny Bav

Summer internship pt. 2

So it’s my first day of the internship and I hadn’t quite calculated how long it was going to take me to get to the offices perfectly, so I decided to leave earlier to avoid being late (probably the worse thing I can do on the first day). I was around 30-40 mins early, so I decided to go for a stroll around the offices and the area, before casually merging with the big group of confused interns that were congregating near the office reception. We all received security passes and were taken to a room for our induction. We all sat in groups around tables and had some awkward ice breakers, some fun team tasks and an opportunity to chat to people from the firm. Oh and they took us to Pizza Express for lunch – yummy! Following this, I had another induction the following day which was more focused to the consultancy line.

I had a pretty funny moment where I had a Skype interview at lunchtime and had to do it over my mobile phone due to connection issues (technology these days). I’d have to say it was an ‘experience’. I could only see half of the faces of the people who were interviewing me and the call cut out when I was asking them questions at the end, making it look like I’d just hung up on them – psssht, great! (I got the job in the end though, yay!)

Anyway at the end of my induction, I was given a woman’s name to contact and barely any other information – eeek!

I called the woman and she was really friendly and told me to meet her in Euston at 7:45am the next day to travel to client offices. All I could think of was how early it was, but I was excited and agreed to meet her the following day. Fast forward to the morning, I was a little nervous of what to expect so I arrived nice and early in Euston with enough time to grab some tea.

I found the woman Sarah and she gave me a brief introduction to the project on the train and assigned me with some work when we arrived. She was super friendly and helpful and working with her for the last few weeks has let me get stuck into the project. Outside my work, I’ve had a whole load of social events and met up with people from the firm for their opinions and stories on why they were working for Deloitte. Based on all of this, I want to leave you with a few things I’ve learnt from my internship.

1.) It’s pretty informal (depending on your client)

My internship has been surprisingly informal, I’ve been able to chat to people and have casual brainstorming sessions which allow creativity and work to flow more easily. There are also a bunch of team initiatives such as our weekly bakeoff and dress down Fridays. Intertwine this with regular social events and societies and you have a pretty good balance between a work and a social environment!

2.) The work is less demanding than studying?

In my opinion, studying drains a lot of my brainpower and it feels like it doesn’t end. At work you can go in and have the ability to finish off tasks assigned to you and cross them off your list and move on to the next task. I’m not sure if this means that it’s less demanding, but it’s a lot more rewarding to know that you’re making progress and to see the effects of your work in real life, rather than having a lot to learn and retain. I guess the best way to summarise it is that work is a lot more practical and that’s something I like.

3.) Routines are great, but can also suck

Waking up at 6:30am everyday to go to work seems like a pain at first, but the days fly and never drag as you have so much to do. The one thing I’ve noticed is that people like to adopt a work hard play hard lifestyle in London. I’ve seen people have an 8am to 6pm day, followed by going out in the evening and then arriving ready to work the next day. It’s crazy – but I guess it’s the reality when you work long hours. Oh, and weekends feel amazing!

In conclusion, an internship is a great way to learn, meet people and just have fun while being productive towards your future, so why wouldn’t you do one?! 😉

 

 

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Google+
• Share on LinkedIn