Thinking about applying for an internship but don't know where to start? This week I'm joined by Rowan Smith, who shares their experience of landing an internship with the University of East Anglia (UEA)
Participants
- Emily Slade - podcast producer and host, Prospects
- Rowan Smith - student opportunities intern and programme administrator, UEA
Transcript
Rowan Smith: I think it is really important when you're doing an internship to think about where is this going to go? What am I going to do after? Because it really helps to get the most out of your internship by thinking what skills do I want to develop like now?
Emily Slade: Hello and welcome back to Future You. The early careers and student advice podcast brought to you by Prospects.
Rowan Smith: I'm Rowan Smith and I work as an intern at the Student Opportunities Team at UEA Career Central.
Emily Slade: Amazing. So you went to UEA?
Rowan Smith: Yes, I did, yeah.
Emily Slade: As a student and you graduated last July.
Rowan Smith: Yeah.
Emily Slade: Perfect. So how did you learn about this internship?
Rowan Smith: So UEA has a website called Career Central and it hosts a lot of vacancies on there. And one of their vacancies was an internship at Career Central, basically doing a lot of admin tasks. And I applied and I got it. was really fortunate because it was the night that the application was due that I saw it. And I'd just come back from about a six-hour shift at my old job. And I was like, oh, I really want to apply for this position, but do I even have time? So I sent off the hastiest cover letter possible and I thought that's it I'm not going to get it and then I fortunately heard back for an interview.
Emily Slade: Oh amazing. So it's an internship so how is that different from it being a job?
Rowan Smith: So internships are generally short-term contracts as opposed to longer ones. Normally you're working on a project instead of having a full-time role. Internships are also based around your learning and development as well as just fulfilling your contracted work. So as part of my internship, I have a personal development plan. I have weekly meetings with my line manager to talk about how my internship's going and how I want to grow and what experience I want as well as helping New Year and Career Central to run and doing all the admin tasks for them as well.
Emily Slade: Nice. And at the end of it, is there the opportunity to go into a job?
Rowan Smith: Not at Career Central. I was very fortunate in that my original contract was until December and they offered me an extension. Some internships do offer full-time jobs, but not YM1, YM1 particularly, which kind of works for me because I kind of want to move out anyway and kind of see other things. And I think that's the nice thing about internships as well, is while entry level jobs often just train you up for the specific job you're doing, internships allow you to personalise your development and think about what experience you want in your CV and tailor your work towards getting that experience.
Emily Slade: Yeah, that's such a good point. So you talked about hurriedly sending off a cover letter at like 5 to midnight. What was the rest of the application process like?
Rowan Smith: It was very simple. very similar to most jobs. I just sent a CV and a cover letter and then I had an interview at the university a couple of weeks later and then I heard back the same day.
Emily Slade: Oh, amazing. What, why, did you want this particular internship?
Rowan Smith: I think a lot of entry level jobs that are advertised to graduates aren't always entry level. A lot of the times you'll be looking at Indeed or LinkedIn and you'll see a job advertised as entry level and then it says, oh, but you need one to two years of experience. This particular internship was specifically marketed to recent graduates, which fit my credit pretty well because I'd never been in the workplace before. I had a degree, I had basic admin experience working in societies at the university. I'd never actually had a job in an admin setting before, so it really suited my particular criteria. I really wanted to work at UEA as well. I know from going to UEA that it's such a welcoming and supportive place and it's great for anyone to work or study there based on if they have disabilities or if they are worried about discrimination or anything, it's always really good. So I knew from experience that it was an amazing employer to work for.
Emily Slade: You talked about entry level jobs. They usually come with an entry level salary, internships. Are you looking at an entry level salary there or is it slightly more?
Rowan Smith: Generally you are looking at an entry level salary, depends on the internships. Because I work in Career Central, I often look at a lot of internships. So they very much differ based on what kind of field you're going into. If you're going into a field which has more competition or is something like arts based, you're looking at more entry level. If you're going into something to do with computers or engineering, you might get a higher salary as is the same with all entry level jobs. But even though it's still kind of entry level salary, you are gaining more knowledge than you would the saying, oh, I'm getting paid in experience is a joke, but also you are getting paid in experience as well as, you know, the actual salary, which is quite a nice benefit as well, I must say.
Emily Slade: Yeah, absolutely. And when you're looking at these other internships through your job, are there such a thing as unpaid internships? It's a big thing in America. Do we see it as much over here?
Rowan Smith: Not so much. We generally don't advertise unpaid internships because.
Emily Slade: Are they particularly ethical?
Rowan Smith: Like, are you working full time without pay? That's not great. Some people do go for unpaid internships, especially if they are trying to get into fields which are more competitive. So if you're going into journalism or publishing, you might be considering an unpaid internship with a smaller company. But most high profile companies will only offer full-time internships, full pay internships, because it is kind of law.
Emily Slade: That's good. That's good. And you are doing a bit of admin, but is it, are you treated like a regular staff member? Are you making teas and sending basic emails?
Rowan Smith: I'm not making any tea, which is quite nice, though I do regularly go out for coffee, which not great for the bank account, but it's got to have a little treat. Absolutely. I do send out a lot of emails, the classic internship stereotype. But I also do a lot of work around research and uploading vacancies and creating posters to market vacancies. I'm quite lucky in my internship that my line manager takes into account what I enjoy doing and tries to tailor my schedule towards doing that. So I've expressed interest in kind of more creative roles, more roles to do with research. So I spend a lot of time creating posters, which is to do marketing and then also researching jobs, which is basically just what I was doing before I was employed, but now I get paid, which is great.
Emily Slade: Yeah, perfect. And do you get support and training on anything that you're introduced to ahead of doing it or are you just sort of thrown in?
Rowan Smith: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Especially when you start an internship, you get a lot of support and training to make sure that you kind of know what you're doing and any support that you need is there for you. As you go on in an internship, especially my internship, it's a bit more hands off. So because you're kind of doing everything week to week, you don't need a lot of extra training support. But there's always people around who are very willing to help you out. And there's a general understanding that you are new to the company and often new to the workforce as well. But part of an internship is you can also branch out into different support and trainings that you want. So I have a couple of hours each week where I get to pursue my own development. So I spend that time doing online courses for Excel, which just helps to build my CV as well as eventually helping you out when I get better at Excel and can use my skills to help them with their work.
Emily Slade: Perfect. And you're remote, is that right?
Rowan Smith: I'm hybrid.
Emily Slade: Hybrid. So you're in the office how many days a week? Three days a week. Three days a week. And is that your choice or is that what the contract was?
Rowan Smith: That's what the contract was, yeah.
Emily Slade: And do you think that's, are we seeing is that the norm now?
Rowan Smith: I think so. Yeah, we definitely saw a kind of shift towards working from home as ckvid ind of hit. But A lot of places I see are hybrid, moving towards hybrid, which I think is really positive because it is nice to be able to work from home some days and not have to think about having to come into the office. But especially when you're a young person getting into field of work, it's a really good opportunity to A, get to know your co-workers who you can network with, great opportunity. And also learning what an actual workplace is like and what workplace culture is like, because that's a skill in itself as well as doing your actual job.
Emily Slade: Absolutely. Can you give us an example of what you found about what I found out about workplace culture? Is that a weird question? Do you hang out by the water fountain? I suppose how different is it from a university experience and is it a shock to the system or is it quite easy to suddenly be best friends with Linda who's 45?
Rowan Smith: It definitely takes a bit of getting used to and when I started working there I felt a bit out of place because I was the youngest person there by quite a few years. Everyone else around me is you know a lot older than me, has kids or is living with their partner or getting married and I'm 21 years old and not really used to that kind of place where there's so much variety and age differences. when you grow up in school and then university, you're surrounded by people your age and you know how to talk to people your age. So transitioning into talking to people older than you and also talking in a workplace way is kind of a shift, but it is something you get used to and you do realise that everyone, despite how old or what background they come from, they are all still people and they all have common interests, they all go home at the end of the day, they all come back to work. it can be quite scary meeting new people. especially like bosses and people who've been there for years. But at the end of the day, they are just people, and you just learn what people's interests are, what their little quirks are, what they like to do, what their habits are, which is a really nice environment when you get to see people every day.
Emily Slade: Definitely. And so are you nearing the end of your internship soon?
Rowan Smith: I finish it in May.
Emily Slade: And are you looking ahead to the future already or are you going to wait until like March to do that?
Rowan Smith: I'll wait until the day before it ends and then I'll start thinking about 4:55 on my last day. Maybe I should start thinking about this. I'm still thinking about what I'm going to do in the future. I think it is really important when you're doing an internship to think about where is this going to go? What am I going to do after? Because it really helps to get the most out of your internship by thinking, what skills do I want to develop right now that could aid me in the future that I want to build for myself? And that's a big difference between a regular job and an internship, which we already talked about, is that while a regular job often you clock out and clock in, an internship is kind of built around you and built for you. So it's really important if you do end up having an internship to take advantage of that and kind of explore what you want to do with it as much as possible and as much as your contract allows. So I'm thinking about going into potentially the civil service or political work and charities. So I'm finding doing a lot of work in admin and things is really helpful that I've started getting more involved with the business engagement side of the organisation, which just means I have more experience contacting businesses outside of UEA, which should be helpful in kind of any job you get into. But working in a career service is really useful, this kind of thing, because you can just sort of passively be thinking about what you want to do without having to actively search for things. I come across a job and I'm like, that's really interesting. That's kind of what I want to do. Maybe I'll go recheck that website in a couple of months and see if there's anything similar.
Emily Slade: Yeah, that's awesome. So I suppose yeah, you're being able to tailor your final few months and then is it just a case of like you're going to start sending out the applications, going through that job seeking thing. Are you hoping to have something lined up to walk into as soon as May comes to a close or are you not putting that pressure on yourself?
Rowan Smith: I'm personally not because I'm planning on doing travelling. which is one of the really nice things about being on a short-term contract is I have commitments up until May, but after May, you can do whatever you want, which is a really important thing when you're a young person and you don't know where you're going in life and all of a sudden you're like, actually, maybe I do want to go see the world.
Emily Slade: Yeah. Where are you going to see? Don't know yet.
Rowan Smith: We'll find out. Possibly Thailand?
Emily Slade: Nice classic.
Rowan Smith: Possibly going inter-railing through Europe. So that'll be really nice. And then I have Canadian citizenship.
Emily Slade: Oh my God, what?
Rowan Smith: Yeah, well, I have to apply for it.
Emily Slade: Do you have a relative?
Rowan Smith: Is that how you look?
Emily Slade: My mum's sleeping on not being born in Canada. I know. I mean, you could have also been born in Canada if you'd really thought it would have been super useful. Oh my gosh, that's awesome. So what does that process look like? Just applying for the passport and weighing.
Rowan Smith: Yeah, pretty much, pretty much. So it's a bit of a long endeavour.
Emily Slade: Worth it though.
Rowan Smith: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So hopefully We'll be moving in about September. Is it planned? But we'll see, we'll see how it goes.
Emily Slade: We'll see how high it takes for the passport to arrive. Oh my God. Yeah, that's cool. Nice. I love that you're kind of chill about it, that you're like, I've got time. I'm going to do like things that are nice as well as useful. And like, yeah, you've really sold the idea of an internship to me. You want to do one now? I kind of do. Sounds awesome. I like the idea of it being like a snapshot of something that's used to build your skills up and then you can go get another. Do you think you would get another internship or would you think you would look like if the right internship came up or do you think you would start looking for more permanent work?
Rowan Smith: If the right internship came up, I don't think I'd be actively pursuing filing of an internship unless I was really interested in kind of going into different experience or a different kind of career. That's a really nice thing about internships is you can kind of do them at any point in your life. I mean, if you did want to do an internship.
Emily Slade: If you're a hacker and old like me, you can sled back into an internship. Yeah, that's awesome.
Rowan Smith: I think a lot of people when they think about internships think about kind of it's a summer placement and you do it when you're at university and then if you forgot to apply by the end of your second year, then you can't apply for an internship anymore. It's done. But there's so many different types of internships out there. There's student internships, graduate internships, internships for people who are changing careers, internships which are part-time so you can do them alongside your course and online internships as well.
Emily Slade: Do you think you could speak with some certainty about online internships?
Rowan Smith: No.
Emily Slade: Okay. Fair enough. Then that's great. Thank you so much for your time today.
Notes on transcript
This transcript was produced using a combination of automated software and human transcribers and may contain errors. The audio version is definitive and should be checked before quoting.
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