Hi! I’m Ellie and I’m just about to finish my role as a Recruitment Intern with the Unitemps team in ISG. Having spent the last year and a half in the role, the end of my internship comes at the same time that I graduate and finish my time at university – so it felt right to reflect on my internship and my time in ISG in general!
Why I applied
I first joined ISG two years ago as part of the 2023 summer internship cohort, leaving behind my fast-food job to become a ‘Learn Foundations Intern’, and spent the summer as part of a large team working on the university-wide upgrade from Learn Original to Learn Ultra. I absolutely loved the culture in ISG, and my first experience of a ‘professional’ job was an incredibly positive one. A few months later, I saw the Unitemps team was advertising for an intern to join them part-time during term and knew I had to apply. The job criteria seemed to really match the experience that I’d built up through customer service jobs, being on society committees, and my Learn internship. At the time I was also working as a campus ambassador for two different companies, helping with on-campus recruitment activity across the university, so I thought I could claim to have at least some recruitment-adjacent experience in my application! I ended up lucky enough to be offered the role, and I joined the team in January 2024.
What my role has been
The internship turned out to be much more varied than I expected when applying, and I’ve gained experience across the entire recruitment cycle. A big part of this has been learning about the compliance side of recruitment, conducting many right-to-work checks for our new hires and seeing how much goes on behind the scenes to get new student workers fully onboarded. I’ve also written job adverts, created social media graphics, organised socials and networking events, manned stalls at careers fairs, and run induction sessions for new hires. For me, this variety has been the main highlight of this internship. In particular, having written so many job adverts, I now know what recruiters are looking for in applicants – how things like advert criteria and the job description should be utilised in a good CV and cover letter. I’m hoping this will be very useful in the future when applying for new roles!
Highlights and what I have learnt
A really valuable aspect of this role has been being able to represent a student’s perspective on the team, for example when we’re deciding on what training and development events students would want to see being run during the summer internship programme. I’ve also spent the last few years on the committee of the 93% Club, a society which aims to provide a community for state-educated/WP students on campus, and so I’ve also been able to bring this perspective to the team, particularly when it comes to marketing. A few months ago, I produced a collaboration post between Unitemps and the 93% Club on Instagram which offered advice on applying for internships specifically as a WP student. The post was viewed by over 2000 users, and I’m hopeful that it helped contribute (at least in part!) to the increase in applications that we received for this year’s summer internship programme.
What recruitment itself looks like has also changed a lot over the course of this internship with the rise of AI use in applications, something I hadn’t expected to feature so significantly in my role when I first applied. Because we now see so many applications which have clearly used AI, I’ve been able to gain a real understanding of how it is being used in the job market. For example, we’ve had several jobs where multiple applicants have submitted essentially the same cover letter, because ChatGPT has generated the same thing for each of them! It’s definitely made me more aware of what the responsible use of AI in job applications looks like, and what common mistakes people make when using it to write an application.
As I prepare to start a new job in September, entering the world of work full-time as a graduate (a very daunting prospect!), I’ve also reflected a lot on the skills that this job has given me. I’ve been able to try my hand in things like data analysis and social media marketing, creating data dashboards on application trends and contributing to our Instagram account. I even forayed in front of the camera, creating a day in my life video as part of our summer internships promotion last year! Organising intern socials and running stands at several careers fairs has also allowed me to improve my communication skills. Most importantly, though balancing working alongside being on society committees and my academics has been challenging, particularly as a final year student, it also means my time management skills are now second to none! While my next job isn’t in recruitment, I know that all the transferable skills I’ve gained through working in ISG means that I feel much more confident than many others venturing out into the corporate world as a graduate.
Summary
ISG has been a really significant part of my university experience, having been just 19 when I first joined back in 2023. I’ve been able to develop such a wide range of skills and contribute to various projects which have had an impact on student worker experience, as well learn more about everything which goes on behind the scenes to keep the university and our student employment programmes running. I’m very grateful to have had the opportunity to do this, and to work with such a great team along the way!
