Internship: Structured work for a company, generally in summer
An internship is a structured work experience, often run over the summer months, normally lasting 6 to 12 weeks. Internships are often run by larger employers who recruit many students and use their internship schemes as a talent pipeline for their graduate programmes. Internships are often advertised before or during the autumn term and will sometimes focus on penultimate or later year students, with many companies hoping to convert summer interns into graduate hires. Internships may be listed as ‘placements,’ so read the description carefully to make sure it is what you’re looking for. Small or Medium companies do also run internships, and they tend to recruit later in the year. Some degrees may allow you to take an internship for credit or may run an internship or placement as part of your degree course. Check with your programme if this is possible and what their processes are.
David: Internship at Diagio
David is in his second year of his BSc Economics, Finance and Data Science and he is looking for an internship for the summer. David is worried as some of his fellow students already have work experience arranged over summer through their family connections, so he has decided to be proactive. He attended a careers essential session on finding jobs and internships and used the links he was given.
He has an interest in learning about banking roles as that is what many of his classmates are applying for however he knows that these roles are very competitive and he’s not really sure he wants to go into banking. While he will apply for some banking internships but he’s also expanding his search to find any sort of business-related experience with a large organisation.
Based on advice to tailor his applications as opposed to simply sending out generic ones he limited what he applied for. He applied for 11 roles, completed 8 online tests, got 2 interviews and was offered an internship at Diagio, a multinational fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) drinks company.
It wasn’t a company he was familiar with but during his internship he’ll be working in supply chain management, using his data analysis skills to find efficiencies throughout a variety of processes across the company. He’s hoping to learn a lot about how the whole business works and functions in an international level which he thinks will be useful for any sort of business or finance role in the future.
Below are some practical details that David had to think about.
- Can this count for credit? No, this is not part of his course although this may be different for other programmes.
- Where will he live? David knew he would probably have to stay in London if he got an internship so has already been looking for flats, although Diagio is based in Reading so he will need to commute. If you want more information on housing, check out Steve and Sarah’s
- How long is it? Internships can be anywhere between 6 and 12 weeks. David has been offered 8 weeks which is pretty standard.
- Will he get paid? All internships should be paid at a rate of or above the minimum wage. David knows he will get £19,000 pro-rata for his time at the company. He will earn approximately £2923 for his 8 week internship. The average salary for an internship is between £18,000-£22,000 pro-rata.
- National Insurance. David was sent his national insurance number when he was 16, but he can’t remember it! He should visit the government National Insurance website to find it. International students will probably need to apply for one.
Visit the AA units on Transitions to find out more about what David did during his internship.