Employment Services Administration Assistant – University of Exeter, Exeter

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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.