Category Archives: Human Resources, Recruitment and Training

HR Administrator – Fugro GB Marine Ltd

Access to Internships (A2I), Administration, Business and Management, English, Human Resources, Recruitment and Training, Law, Law and Legal Services, Philosophy

What were your main roles and responsibilities during the course of your internship?

Uploading vacancies to our website, intranet, and job boards, organising the recruitment mailbox and ensure hiring managers receive all incoming applications, arranging interviews and tests, as well as inductions, by liaising with candidates and managers, receiving all right to work documentation, CV’s and new starter forms and filing these appropriately, drafting letters to employees and new starters for salary reviews, contractual changes and promotions, navigating and where required, updating, company processes for recruitment and resignations, coordinating leavers, including confirming any final payroll deductions and booking exit interviews, creating contracts for new starters and inputting contractual changes to our systems for current staff, handling rejections, offers, queries, and the day to day requests for the HR Department.

What would you say was your biggest achievement over the course of your internship?

I learnt a lot of information about the HR sector – developing skills in contracts, documentation and the importance of attention to detail in relation to this, and generally improved the formulation of processes and strategies to aid efficiency!

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I have eased the pressures on a very busy HR department, allowing HR Advisors to actually complete their advisor work rather than administrative tasks. I have also noted necessary changes to previous procedures in admin, making processes more user friendly and less time-consuming.

What skills were you able to develop through the internship?

Communication, organisation, focus on goals and outcomes

What attributes were you able to develop through the internship?

Commercial awareness, motivation, personal awareness

eXepert Administrator – University of Exeter Employment Services, Exeter

Administration, Economics, Human Resources, Recruitment and Training, Student Campus Partnership (SCP),

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What were your main duties and responsibilities during the course of your internship?

As the sole administrator for the eXepert scheme I was responsible for ensuring all student applications were processed and the information was inputted into the relevant databases. I then conducted searches to find suitable alumni for each student. When students then selected the alumni they wished to speak to, I facilitated communication between them.
I was also responsible for marketing the scheme, and I did this in a number of ways. From posting a small descriptive piece in the ‘What’s on’ newsletter, to sending emails to students informing them of the scheme.

What would you say was your biggest achievement over the course of your internship?

I enjoyed many aspects of my role and the responsibilities that came with it. It was certainly rewarding helping a vast number of students. I feel my biggest achievement was definitely beating the targets that had been set for the number of applications to the scheme. I was also pleased with how much I learnt about excel. I have definitely acquired skills I will use in future employment, such as excel skills and becoming comfortable speaking to alumni.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I was able to look after the eXepert scheme myself, which allowed my supervisor and manager to focus on other projects. I also improved the spreadsheets used for the scheme which will make it easier to process applications in the future, saving time and resources. I also increased the volume of applications processed in the same period of time, this shows that I have increased the efficiency of the process.

Employment Services Administration Assistant – University of Exeter, Exeter

Administration, History, Human Resources, Recruitment and Training, Student Campus Partnership (SCP),

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What were your main duties and responsibilities during the course of your internship?

Latterly my main role was to oversee and organise follow up for the Employment services team, and deal with any queries that revolved around this. Previous to this I also helped with returning signed contracts, advertising new GBP placements on external University sites, finance and help with careers fairs.

What would you say was your biggest achievement over the course of your internship?

My biggest achievement was likely the ability to run my student workload alongside my Employment Services work. This particularly helped hone my time management skills. Furthermore, the way in which the role was situated ‘within’ the university helped me to better understand the different degrees of professionalism necessary for work within and outside of the job.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

The way in which I came to be solely responsible for the follow up process meant that I had full ownership for it which meant I was usually aware of any ‘exceptions’ or predicaments that arose. In this way the follow up process was largely taken away from my employer’s remit and I hope they felt able to trust me with the process as it was ‘my baby’ to that extent. This lessened the workload of my employer and, I believe, increased the efficiency of which it was done. Furthermore, this ownership meant that I felt able to build more of a relationship between myself and the interns, and could be colloquial in my approach and relationship with them, which I think got better results when asking for feedback.

Did you encounter any problems during the course of your internship and if so, how did you overcome them?

Occasionally there would be slight delay in communication between updates (such as extensions and resignations) and my emailing. However, this was solved by making a structured approach to follow up, such that I would create lists on Mondays and send out emails on Thursdays, which generally gave a ‘buffer’ for unexpected changes.

Recruitment Resourcing Intern

Access to Internships (A2I), English, Human Resources, Recruitment and Training,

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What were your main duties and responsibilities during the course of your internship?

I was responsible for resourcing new candidates through head hunting, cold calling, Linkedin message and email – working towards my target of 20 active candidates per week. I also identified and contacted relevant candidates from the company’s existing database. I carried out the initial screening of candidates for senior consultant, either through a phone call or email communication. I was tasked with formatting candidate CVs and job specs, with a quick ten minute turn-around time, whilst still maintaining accuracy and attention to detail. I also picked out relevant and interesting media related news articles to post to the company social media page each morning. Finally, I developed and maintained resourcing spreadsheet in Excel and researched and built organisation charts for key clients.

What would you say was your biggest achievement over the course of your internship?

I gained full end to end knowledge of the market in which I was recruiting (Ad Operations and the Programmatic landscape), something of which I had no knowledge before starting my internship. After receiving my initial training, I presented my understanding of the market back to the team. Towards the end of my internship, I then did my presentation for a second time, this time explaining my deeper understanding and working to improve on my first attempt.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

In my role as a resourcer, I was responsible for contacting as many relevant candidates as possible. Over the course of my internship, I initiated conversation with around 400 different people, finding whether out whether or not they were open to new opportunities. Of this, around 130 people were interested in new opportunities – I liased between these candidates and my senior consultant, in order to gain their details and work out which roles they would be suitable for. Of my sourced candidates, 16 different people had 30 different interviews, as a result of me contacting them.

Did you encounter any problems during the course of your internship and if so, how did you overcome them?

I encountered a difficulty in that, as an intern, I didn’t have access to a ‘Linkedin Recruiter’ account which enables you to message an unlimited number of potential candidates, and is an essential resource to the rest of the team in order to reach as many people as possible. I was therefore unable to use the search function on Linkedin, and so was limited in the number of candidates I was able to find. I overcame this my alerting my senior colleague to the issue and asking for a list of names I could work through manually instead.

“Caitlin has been a valuable asset to our team. She has picked up significant knowledge of the digital advertising industry and is now interviewing for two full time positions within digital advertising due to the experience gained with us” – Line Manager. 

Employability Project Support Officer – University of Exeter

Administration, Education, Teaching and Research, Geography, Graduate Business Partnership (GBP), Human Resources, Recruitment and Training,

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What were your main duties and responsibilities during the course of your internship?

My main role has been to improve the employability of graduates from the CLES department, through updating the DLHE database and making transferable skills clearer in modules. Within this, I organised a large employability meeting with colleagues from the Streatham campus, where ideas to improve employability in the department were discussed and a list of actions was created.

What would you say was your biggest achievement over the course of your internship?

Sucessfully organising this large employability meeting, which helped me to gain valuable administration skills and experience.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I reduced the workload of my colleagues and was able to contribute my own ideas as a graduate on how the department can improve employability prospects for students.

Did you encounter any problems during the course of your internship and if so, how did you overcome them?

I had to purchase a lot of resources for the meeting so I had to understand how the finance system worked and deal with budgets. This was easily overcome by asking more experienced colleagues in the office for help.

Alumni & Employability Administrator, University of Exeter

Administration, Education, Teaching and Research, Geography, Graduate Business Partnership (GBP), Human Resources, Recruitment and Training,

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What were your main duties and responsibilities during the course of your internship?My duties included:

  •  Engaging alumni in volunteering activities such as careers events and creating careers profiles.
  • Organising careers events including alumni careers panels, workshops, mock interviews; booking rooms, ordering catering, parking, promoting to students, etc.
  •  Updating the alumni database.
  •  Promoting careers events to students within our College.
  • Writing and compiling content for the SSIS Employability Newsletter.
  • Helping academics engage alumni in various activities/events.
  • Liaising with the alumni team and working with them on various events/projects when needed.
  • Helping student societies engage alumni & helping promote events where necessary.
  • Dealing with any general alumni enquiries.
  • Organising law mock interviews with alumni, making arrangements for the day, advertising to students etc.

What would you say was your biggest achievement over the course of your internship?

I became a lot more confident in speaking to a range of people as I was liaising with students, academics, colleagues across different teams and alumni – many of whom were in senior positions in their companies. I reached a point where I felt comfortable speaking with such a diverse range of people.

Another achievement was starting the College Employability Newsletter from scratch and working on improving on this over the duration of my internship, and being able to see the open rate increase and the subsequent increase in events bookings.

I also had the opportunity to get involved in so many different aspects and gain a lot of experience in organising events, working in an admin-type role in Higher Education which has enabled me to go on to secure a permanent job at the University.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I started up the College Employability newsletter which the team did not have capacity to do so before and I worked with Design Team to rebrand our College employability branding. Our College also had its highest ever number of alumni volunteering hours and number of volunteering activities during 2015-16 as with more capacity, we were able to organise more events, engage more alumni and I was able to update the database much more regularly to reflect this.

Did you encounter any problems during the course of your internship and if so, how did you overcome them?

I was asked to help an academic organise a very last-minute overseas alumni trip which required asking colleagues in GED and they need a much longer time frame to organise these type of events so it caused a problem. I overcame it by ensuring I kept both the academic and the alumni team regularly up-to-date with progress, managing the expectations of the academic and making it clear the number of attendees may be low as it is last-minute. It made sure I was clearly communicating the academic’s requests to the alumni team and being persistent in making sure the academic provided us with the key details as quickly as possible. In response to this we then wrote a procedure summary for all academics to follow in future when wanting to organise an alumni event and to provide them with realistic time-frames.

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“My Alumni & Employability Assistant provided vital support to events, newsletters & alumni engagement” – Line Manager. 

Careers Information Assistant – Career Zone, University of Exeter

Administration, Education, Teaching and Research, Graduate Business Partnership (GBP), Human Resources, Recruitment and Training,

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What were your main duties and responsibilities during the course of your internship?

My role was to provide front desk careers support for the Career Zone at St Luke’s Campus. Aside from this customer-facing role, I was also responsible for several projects within the Careers Service such as Finalist Fridays. My role also included providing admin support to the central team and help organising careers events. My role varied from those at Streatham Campus as it involved tailoring the careers service to the needs of St Luke’s students. This required a lot of collaboration with local departments and services.

What would you say was your biggest achievement over the course of your internship?

I would say my biggest achievement has been leading a project and seeing it grow from an initial idea to an active part of our service.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I believe my internship lightened the workload for my colleagues as I was able to work on several key in-year targets, allowing my colleagues to work towards other key goals. I would like to think it has also helped our relationship with other departments as I have tried to strengthen the relationship between the central careers service and departmental employability leads.

Did you encounter any problems during the course of your internship and if so, how did you overcome them?

One of the main problems was that there was a lack of awareness of our presence on St Luke’s so I had to devote a lot of time to promoting the service and advertising what we offer. We now see students come in for careers support and enquiries on a more regular basis. The other key problem was working remotely from my team but it just highlighted the importance of good communication and made me keep in regular contact. It also allowed me to work more closely with local teams and services for campus-specific support and guidance.

Employment Services Administrator – Career Zone, Exeter

Administration, Advertising, Marketing and PR, Classics and Ancient History, Employer Feedback, Graduate Business Partnership (GBP), Human Resources, Recruitment and Training,

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What were your main duties and responsibilities during the course of your internship?

Over the course of my internship I had several  responsibilities. At the beginning of the internship I helped to process intern contracts, inputting student and employer information and making sure that our records were up to date. I also ran finance reports, and made sure that the information in our finance spreadsheets matched expenditure. In the second half of my internship I was responsible for organising a careers event for CEMPs students. This involved shortlisting potential employers based in the South West, and getting in contact with them via email and telephone to encourage them to sign up to the event. Whilst doing this, I marketed the event to students via social media, targeted emails, and through student societies. I was also responsible for making sure that facilities were booked for the day of the event.

What would you say was your biggest achievement over the course of your internship?

Organising the careers event for CEMPs students. I became much more confident speaking to external contacts after inviting employers to the event and providing them with further details about the event. I also gained new skills in areas that I previously had limited experience in such as digital marketing, through marketing the event to students.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I helped to streamline the processing of intern information during the busy period before Christmas, which meant that departments and employers were able to employ student and graduate interns quickly and easily. I also helped to make sure that the finances were accurate, as I was able to check them more frequently. Finally, I organised the careers event for CEMPs students, which my manager would not have been able to organise alongside their other responsibilities.

“He has been an excellent team player, very hardworking, flexible and reliable for the 3 months he was with us. He has been involved in calling employers about attending an event, writing promotional text to send to students and drawing up an action plan list. He also helped prepare GBP and SCP contracts and worked on finance.  Having him in the office really helped us get on top of the workload.” – Line Manager.

Employee Services Administrator (HR Administration) – University of Exeter

Administration, Business and Management, Graduate Business Partnership (GBP), Human Resources, Recruitment and Training

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What were your main roles and responsibilities during the course of your internship?

General HR admin including answering email and telephone enquiries, producing employment references, processing new starters, processing extensions and contract changes.

What would you say was your biggest achievement over the course of your internship?

Being offered a higher paid HR admin position in recognition of the hard work I’d put in during my internship.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I helped colleagues and team during a very busy period and I also started the process of centralising some HR processes.

Did you encounter any problems during the course of your internship and if so, how did you overcome them?

When I didn’t know how to do something I used my common sense, made notes when learning processes to reflect back on, and asked other members of my team.

“My experience of recruiting a GBP through the Employment Services team has been entirely positive. Our GBP Emma has made a strong impact, and this has been an exciting and different way of developing talent within our team.” – Rob Tinley, Head of Employee Services

Employment Services Support Assistant – Employability Services, University of Exeter

Administration, Advertising, Marketing and PR, Employer Feedback, Graduate Business Partnership (GBP), History, Human Resources, Recruitment and Training,

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What were your main duties and responsibilities during the course of your internship?

The main purpose of my role was to ensure the delivery of professional and helpful administrative support within the Employment Services Team, in particular for the Graduate Recruitment Team. I played a key role in supporting the arrangements for the careers fairs and a wide range of employer events, in particular showcase/drop-in events, recruiter in residence and mock interviews. I assisted the team in developing relationships with local, regional and national employers, institutions, Alumni, internal Colleges and Services for the benefit of the University and its students and graduates.

What would you say was your biggest achievement over the course of your internship?

Throughout the course of my internship, the team was faced with a number of issues and obstacles out of our control that potentially threatened the organisation of successful events, such as double-bookings and extreme weather conditions. One of my biggest achievements was dealing with unexpected problems calmly and smoothly, always making the employer a priority and quickly creating contingency plans. My confidence has significantly increased as a result of this and I now feel more equipped and capable of dealing with the unexpected.  My internship offered a fantastic opportunity to put my skills into practice and gain invaluable office experience.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I played a key role in the organisation and delivery of four major careers fairs and a large number of smaller employer events, such as presentations and showcases. I coordinated the arrangements of several events from start to finish, taking the original booking, making the necessary arrangements and hosting the event on the day. I feel that my work helped to ease the workload of my colleagues in what was an extremely busy autumn term and was crucial to the smooth running of employer events.

Did you encounter any problems during the course of your internship and if so, how did you overcome them?

The main problems that I encountered during the course of my internships were relating to procedural/system changes, such as alterations to evening event bookings and changes to the newsletter format. I worked closely with colleagues to ensure that transitions were smooth and asked further questions where necessary. I created a comprehensive document detailing the new procedures to guide others in future.

“Jess was brought in to cover maternity leave of a permanent member of staff.  She was an excellent team player, flexible and hard working.  She was keen to ensure she understood what was required of her and wanted to learn.  Her positivity was a delight to have in the office.  As part of her role she had to communicate regularly with employers wanting to work with the University in promoting their internships and graduate role.  Her interpersonal style and customer service were excellent and I had no hesitation in leaving her to get on with it.  We would have offered her a permanent role had she not already secured an alternative role at the University!” – Line Manager.