I first heard about the internships through my friends, my lecturers and the UCS Careers team. I didn’t feel confident enough to apply for an internship after just a year of studying my degree but after a few friends had completed an intern programme, I felt it would be an ideal opportunity to apply myself and to show that I can apply my theoretical knowledge from the classroom in to a real life, working environment.
It gave me invaluable experience of going through a job application process; writing my CV and then having to attend an interview, which fortunately I was successful at.
At first, I didn’t know a lot about Suffolk Sport but after a bit of research I soon found out that they were a county sports partnership working to encourage more people in Suffolk to become more physically active. This was of great interest to me as I already had a keen sporting interest and was enthusiastic to try to do my part to achieve their aim.
Suffolk Sport was brilliant; they gave me the task of improving and updating their website providing me with the information on the key areas where improvement was particularly necessary for them. I was surprised at how they trusted me to just get on and complete the task. I particularly enjoyed taking charge of the website, as it enabled me to be more flexible in my working and gave me the belief that they didn’t just see me as a student that they had to oversee.
Communication was essential to try and elicit more information from coaches and sports clubs to add to the Suffolk Sport website. It was important when building relationships with my colleagues; if there was any problems or ideas I had they were always more than happy to help me. People skills, time management and organisational skills were also essential for the job.
I will always be grateful to Suffolk Sport for giving me the opportunity to work with such fantastic people and to experience real life project work in an office environment. I loved everyday and it has given the confidence boast I needed before finishing my degree, to show that I can adapt my learning to real work situations.