My internship experience - a guest blog from Arjun Karavadra

As a recent graduate, like many other students who graduate with little industry experience, I knew that finding a job would be hard, especially in the current climate. I had applied for a range of jobs, from grad jobs to internships, the lot! However, due to the competitiveness and the ever-changing requirements employers need, I had no luck.

However, I was determined to get the experience I needed and had signed up to all the jobs sites that I could think of! One, that was very beneficial to me was my university’s careers site. Wanting to go into the area of procurement, it was essential that I could get the right experience and that’s where Community Chesterfield came in. While searching University of Derby’s careers site, I came across the job role of a “Collective Procurement Intern” with Community Chesterfield. The role was perfect for me to build some experience in procurement, as it covered key areas such as market analysis and contract management. An additional bonus was that the role was only offered to University of Derby students and recent alumni, on their DRIVEN program, allowing you to build experience in the area you studied in, as well as benefitting Community Chesterfield, as it allowed them to build relationships with the university and their students.

Once I applied for the role and the closing date went by, an interview was arranged with Community Chesterfield. The interview process was great, as it allowed me to get more of an insight on the role and DVA as a whole. Also, it gave me the opportunity to show my strengths and knowledge, which I had gained from my studies and previous work experience.

My first day was a very different experience to what I have been used to, as working from home has become the norm, but still in an “office based” environment, but it was still fun. As it was my first day, it was about getting to know more about Derbyshire Voluntary Action as an organisation and the Community Chesterfield project, as well as the project that I would be working on. It was amazing to learn about all the different types of voluntary organisations in Chesterfield and what they do to help their local communities. Likewise, how DVA and Community Chesterfield help these organisations in a number of areas, such as training and development. Once I got a good understanding of the organisation, I started on my project right away.

The project which I worked on was a collective purchasing agreement for our members. For a quick overview, this involved how we could all work together through a “collective purchasing agreement” to help our members save money on their organisational purchases, by achieving economies of scale. I was responsible for finding how we could tackle this goal and providing the rest of the organisation with the findings. To get a starting point, I needed to conduct internal research, to see what our members needs were. So, my first task was to create a survey on the subject of purchasing and send it out to our members, introducing the project and getting their thoughts and also what they would like to achieve.

Once the research was conducted and I had gained information from our members on what they required, I was able to carry out market research to see if these needs could be met. Throughout the next few weeks, I contacted a range of suppliers to see if they could get onboard the project and gathered information from them on how it could work. I also researched the different types of purchasing agreements and contracts that are available for this project, allowing us to get a better understanding of it all.

Additionally, I was able to get the advice and thoughts of two professionals within purchasing and finance. Adding value and a more balance view on the project, so it was not all solely from me and my team.

I was able to gather a bunch of valuable information for Community Chesterfield and their members, on how collective purchasing could work and what they would need to do. Also, being able to get several suppliers onboard, wanting to work with us on a collective basis, with all the information provided in a detailed report!

My team that I worked with were brilliant! As there were only 5 of us in the Community Chesterfield team, we worked closely with one another. Although, we had our own areas and projects to work on, every week we would share ideas or contacts that could help one another, especially for me, as I was able to use the experience and contacts of my colleagues to help me throughout the project.

The whole experience was what I expected it to be! Community Chesterfield provided me with a weekly plan, which allowed me to work on specific tasks focusing on procurement each week, which I found was very helpful. Working from home, you can sometimes feel lost, as there isn't that same face to face contact you would have in the office. However, the plans and the meetings with my team, allowed me to be busy throughout my days, with a lot of work and research to do. I was able to gain valuable experience and knowledge in procurement, which will definitely come in play for future roles.

The chance to work with Community Chesterfield and DVA was great for me and I would certainly recommend that if you are considering applying for future roles with them, you should!