CITIZENS ADVICE OXFORD

applications and professional environments. This experience has certainly confirmed my

love of the heritage sector and my desire to work with historic houses in some capacity. The

collections work, particularly the research for the exhibition also confirmed my interest in

pursuing further research in this sector. Whilst I am still very much interested in curation as

a career choice, I now also have a greater understanding that that is not the only way to

work with historic houses and collections and I am eager to explore a range of career

options.

Second Year Undergraduate, BA Philosophy, Politics and Economics, Remote working

Work Projects

This role was project-based, looking to blend

pandemic and post-pandemic working for

Citizens Advice in the future. It involved

determining models of engagement that

worked best for the client base of Oxford's

charities. Consulting and contacting other

charitable organisations in Oxford enabled the gathering of qualitative and quantitative

research on how charities believe their client base behaves in order to achieve the most

efficient and useful service for those who need. Taking into account digital exclusion and the

drop of non-native English speakers and refugees engaging with these kinds of services

during the pandemic meant that people were slipping between the cracks of support.

A model of pandemic working is not sustainable in this sense long term, as it is more

exclusionary that what preceded it. At the same time, young people engage more with

charities digitally, so the project and final report was about striking a balance to engineer a

model of service that serves everyone. Citizens Advice Oxford was very encouraging and

provided us with plenty of opportunities to meet the team and get involved in day-to-day

work. I even took part in the annual Oxford Legal Walk!

Daily Life

I undertook this position from university

accommodation, the Dorothy Wadham

Building on Iffley Road. At first, I was quite

disappointed that my internship would be

remote rather than in person. Nonetheless, I

feel working from home enabled me to

better balance work and life than I sometimes manage during term time. Outside of work, I

went to visit the college tortoise a fair amount. I am tortoise officer at Wadham College and

having a reason to go into town every day did good things for my mental health.

Lasting Impressions

I think that this internship really confirmed for me that I want to work in a field involving or

based around evidence-based social policy. The work we undertook was very rewarding and

I want to spend more time in the field. Obviously during the pandemic, it is difficult to feel

you are living something fully, which I also felt with this experience. I think this experience

has given me insights in particular into the coordination required when considering part

time working.

What practical advice would you give to future interns?

As an intern, it’s safe to say you can never have too much preparation! Indeed, it goes without saying that being well-prepared is important in everything that we do, but this can

especially be important when working as an intern. As a student, the things that you need to

have ready are always already provided as a list for you. What you need to prepare for a

tutorial assignment and what things you need to study for Final Honours Schools are always

clear.

However, when you start working at an organisation, in many cases, no one will be there to

tell you everything; you need to be able to come up with the list of things to prepare by

yourself. Also, as a student, you are only responsible for yourself. Even if you have had

experience working in student organisation, it’s nothing compared to what you will

experience as an intern; you will find that every little thing you do can affect not only your

entire team, but also the future of your company.