The following post is a guest piece written by University of Leeds student Conor, who attended our Intermediate Excel for Analysis training course and has since remained connected with us in his career progression. He shares his summer internship experience with us and future career plans.
This summer I have dived into the world of start-ups. With my time at Visitor Insights ending, I feel it is time to reminisce about what I have experienced and achieved over the past 9 weeks.
My search for a summer internship was a long painful process, as most of my peers have also experienced. I was motivated to keep going due to my lack of office-based work experience and the overarching question and fear of what I will do once my university experience is complete. I knew that getting at least some experience in the corporate world would at the very least strike some careers of my prospects.
So far, my course at Leeds has introduced me to the world of data analytics, this was an interest I wanted to delve deeper into. After applying to dozens of summer internships and attending several interviews my hope was waning. Then as 2022 began I took part in a excel course ran by Red Tiger Consulting. I managed to achieve top of my cohort in the final project, little did I know this would lead to so much more.
Because of my success I received a gift voucher, during communications to organise receiving this I decided to reach out to Steve at Red Tiger and ask for career advice. This was warmly accepted and not only did I receive invaluable advice for my future but also a number of internship opportunities. From here the process was very smooth thanks to Steve and the companies help, after several interviews I decided to join Visitor Insights for my summer internship.
Conor’s Summer Internship at Visitor Insights
Visitor Insights struck me as an amazing opportunity, not only did they have a role for me working with data, but due to them being a start-up I felt the fast-paced hands-on environment would teach me a wide range of vital skills. Thankfully I was not wrong, on my first day I had already begun dealing with data requests directly from clients. My previous excel training was instantly of great use and soon I had hugely improved my excel ability. A skill that will pay dividends in my spatial data analysis module I have enrolled in next year.
It was not only these hard skills that I developed, my ability to teamwork and problem solve was also put to the test and improved in such a small hands-on environment. I can now safely say I have a better understanding of how to work more efficiently as a team to get the job done, a skill that will be become valuable in future group projects.
For a large part of my internship, I was heavily involved in sales and marketing. For example, I created their first monthly newsletter and conducted a research article that featured. This new area for me proved to be highly enlightening. The knowledge provided to me by the team in this area has given me a greater understanding on how to both market a product and myself, culminating in sales calls with clients such as Gatwick.
The experience has opened my eyes to vast complexities off the start-up and business world. Thus, showing me the wide array of roles I can pursue. Whilst also narrowing my mind into what I believe I am most apt for, a role in data analytics. The skills and confidence I have gained makes endeavouring into this world all the easier. Whether I join Visitor Insights at the end of my university life or another company, I can categorically say an internship with them has been a fine start to my career.
If, like Conor, you are considering your next steps for a summer internship or your first role as a graduate, get in touch with Steve to see how we can help.
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