An insight into the summer placement scheme
My past blogs have involved a lot of excitement, nerves, and meeting new people. Basically, I was just trying to get across the whirlwind of feelings, thoughts and adrenaline you get from those first two weeks. It’s completely overwhelming and exciting- if slightly exhausting. And thankfully for your sleep pattern, it does change. So what’s it like six weeks in, feeling settled and a lot less confused in your summer internship?
It’s great! By “settled” I mean that I’ve gotten used to what I’m doing, I’m not as nervous, and I understand more who to speak to about what. I still have huge amounts to learn and gain, but the crazy buzz of meeting a whole host of new people has worn off slightly, clarifying everything a bit. My projects are exciting and really moving forwards- I’ve recently run a stall signing office staff up for a range of volunteering activities and I’m sorting out focus groups for my project on absence. Being more focused and settled has allowed me to look at what’s been important to me in this internship so far. I thought I’d share with you below;
Since the beginning of the internship I have learned the importance of stretching yourself outside of the boundaries you may perceive you have. Whether these are self imposed boundaries- e.g. “I’m shy” or boundaries set up by your project- e.g. “I’m working on absence, I can only speak to people in HR”. Breaking these boundaries is really important to get the most out of your placement. In doing this you’ll allow for loads of self development and that all-important networking! Just by speaking to people you’ll find that you can express interest in unique projects, and will be invited along to meetings, allowing you to really get involved. This helps you to understand the variety of your department and the business as a whole. For example, last week I sat in on an assessment centre, to get to grips with how Smart Energy Experts are recruited. I think this is a really important part of the internship, as it impacts how much you learn from the placement, and how much of yourself you give to it.
So that’s this week’s epiphany, I’m sure that after another week here I’ll have more of this interny wisdom to share in another blog!