Several of the new intake of Honours Economics students have taken the opportunity to boost their employability through summer internships. Here, they talk about their experiences:
Safina Ahmed undertook a 3-week internship at Deloitte where she was placed within the Corporate Tax team. She was exposed to several different aspects of the work this team undertakes, including tax computations, drafting client documents and undertaking research projects on potential new clients. This has given her a “real feel of what it’s like to work in one of the big four consultancy firms”, and Safina strongly recommends undertaking a placement such as this to anyone considering a career in tax.
Athanasios Christakos had a summer internship with STOCHASIS Management Consultants in their offices in Athens, Greece. He was involved in various stages of the research process, including undertaking external data collection duties, communicating with partners, and analysing and presenting financial data which his studies at Strathclyde had prepared him well for. Athanasios worked in a team and learned a lot about teamwork in a highly pressured environment: colleagues had a fantastic work ethic and a passionate commitment to produce high quality work, were readily helpful and provided respectful feedback to better understand the quality of the work he undertook. “The whole experience provided me with a great sense of achievement and fuelled my aspirations for the future, and I could not be more grateful. I would recommend working with a small research company to anyone for getting a better understanding of the nature of modern knowledge work, and for developing an informed perspective of industry.”
Andrew Heldut felt it a great honour to have interned at Senator Dick Durbin’s Office in the United States of America. Andrew reports: “I had many office tasks at the Senator’s office from event scheduling to outreach, where I researched and wrote memoranda on State and Federal Bills for the Senator and his senior staff. Moreover I dealt directly with many Illinois constituent problems such as Veteran and Immigration (legal migrant and refugee) problems where the Senator’s office could intervene on a Federal level under Federal law to help solve them.“ Reflecting on his experience, he says: “This was truly an eye opening experience which showed me how US government functions from an internal perspective. Internal politics is quite remarkable and I urge everyone that is interested in politics to apply for political/public internships because it can really broaden your perception of government and makes you appreciate the role of government in an unimaginable way.”
Julius Matuzevicius had the opportunity to undertake a 12 week summer internship at Glasgow City Council in the Corporate Services department. Julius was working on a business development project, that has helped Glasgow City Council to identify where it could look to leverage existing capability and capacity to reduce the impact of the challenging budgetary environment, maximise the number of jobs retained in Glasgow and support neighbouring and other local authorities. During his internship, he created relationships with relevant stakeholders, developed his project management and presentation skills, and improved his overall people skills.
Sibylle Sehl undertook an internship at Oxford University Press within their Ed-UK division in the Technology group, based in Oxford. Sibylle says: “A technical mindset as well as the ability to think logically were a requirement to be selected. During my internship, I was involved in a lot of activities ranging from project management (managing scheduling, creation and release of a digital product), time management and testing and developing. I found my time at Oxford University Press really rewarding as it not only enabled me to gain an insight into the largest university publisher in the world but also make an impact in the educational market for the next generation of students. Being a digital intern within Technology, I also learnt a lot about the digital development of the market and the digitization of our society in general. I'd thoroughly recommend an Oxford University Press internship to anyone who could imagine a career in publishing, wants to step out of their comfort zone and experience an internship scheme that provides a lot of support and an opportunity to meet new people.”