Student Case Study: University of Exeter

Degree subject, Education, Teaching and Research, Internship Schemes, Psychology, Sector, Student Campus Partnership (SCP), , , , ,

Name of Student:  Anda Solea

Degree Subject: MSC Social & Organisational Psychology

Job Title: SCP Research Intern in Social Psychology

Company Name:  University of Exeter

Type of Internship: Student Campus Partnerships (SCPs)  

What were your key duties and responsibilities during your internship?

Write articles, create surveys, recruit participants, analyse data, report data, write the methods section, write open science framework documents, have weekly meetings and give my feedback on previous work

What outputs and outcomes did you deliver for your employer?

Outputs=collected & analysed data, wrote reports and journal article sections, wrote and designed articles, created and edited surveys.

Ouctomes= did 2 studies(double the amount we expected), created documents for publication in a journal, I will be a co-author of the paper, advanced knowledge on the topic  

What was your biggest achievement on your internship?

While working as a psychology research intern I has to design a study from start to finish. I worked weekly, in collaboration and alone. I learnt how to use new software and improved my research skills. As a result we managed to create, run and publish two studies and my supervisor was very happy with my work.

What did not go so well on your internship? How did you overcome any challenges?

I didn’t know how to run certain statistical tests. I asked my co-worker for advice and then researched the tests on the internet and in the end I learnt how to do them and overcame the challenge.

Skills Learnt: 

  • Ability to Work Under Pressure
  • Problem Solving
  • Communication
  • IT
  • Degree Specific

Attributes Developed:

  • Logical thinking
  • Creative thinking
  • Independence
  • Work Ethic
  • Professionalism

Your message to other students considering a similar job role, organisation or sector?

“I have achieved a lot during this internship. I have bettered my research skills and learnt a lot about what goes behind “real” research. This was particularly helpful for me as I am starting my PhD in October and I plan to stay in academia and work in research and thus this intership has been a hard start for my career.”