Why iNHouse provided the perfect opportunity

I felt supported from the first day to my last

They say a week is a long time in politics, but after six weeks at iNHouse, I feel that I’ve only just begun to understand not only how much can change in a week but how much can change day to day. The six weeks have flown by, partly down to just how fast-paced of an environment politics is, but also because of how much I have enjoyed my time here.

I’ve seen a full Labour Shadow Cabinet reshuffle, a mini Conservative Cabinet reshuffle, the preparation for party conference season, migrants moving into the Bibby Stockholm, and then being moved out of the Bibby Stockholm, and all of the issues that have come along with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, or RAAC. And, absurdly, somehow, this feels like a slight lull from last year, where we had three different Prime Ministers in the space of two months.

This experience has both matched some expectations and completely outdone others. I expected a fast-paced environment pushing me to produce the best work that I could, sometimes with a short turnaround time to react to the rapidly changing environment in British politics. However, I could never have anticipated the extent to which this was going to be true, and how fast things could change.

Something that did match up well with my expectations was the culture at iNHouse. I had about half a day at a recruitment afternoon to try and grasp what the work culture would be like, but I immediately got a good feeling. When I arrived on my first day, I realised I was right, and felt supported from the first day to my last.

iNHouse provided the perfect opportunity

One of the biggest questions I was asked when I told people that I was applying for internships was: “Why at the end of your second year of University, rather than when you finish?”. The simple answer is that I thought that the experience would be invaluable before I start applying for graduate jobs next year.

While at university, I wanted experience in public affairs and iNHouse provided the perfect opportunity for this, allowing me to work with multiple different clients and gain a better understanding of what they were looking for. This has led me to feel much more confident about being thrown into the world of full-time work next year.

The follow-up question was then, “why iNHouse?”. And I can comfortably say I made the right decision. This internship allowed me to immerse myself in any opportunity I wanted. The size and spread of different clients at iNHouse meant my experience has been well-varied, experiencing multiple sectors. Although I was assigned to three different client teams, I never felt that I was restricted and that I could always help across the entire company. The calibre of the senior members of the team was another reason that led me to want to grab the opportunity with both hands before it slipped away, and I could not be happier that I did.