Charity Insights

My last week at Nesta. Queue the classic “Time flies!” and “It feels like it was only yesterday when I arrived” and “We’re all going to die someday” clichés. It was a week of many “lasts”: the last catch-up with my supervisor, my last lunch with the interns, the last time I logged into my Nesta email, the last time I had a glass of water at the office… Okay, I’m getting too nostalgic.

The end of my internship consisted of me scrambling about trying to finish up all the little projects I’d been doing over the past month. It was both satisfying and sad (and stressful) adding the finishing touches to my reports with the tight deadline of Friday afternoon, which kept inching closer. Despite this, I still had the chance to have a few last coffees with some colleagues and get some last minute life advice. Oh, and I also received a visit by Jessica Noon of the Careers Office, to chat about my experience and to show off the coolest office ever.

My last proper act as a Nesta intern was supposed to be a meeting with the other interns to discuss the internship process; an informal reunion to just bounce ideas off of each other. Little did I know it was all a ruse to get me to a room where I was greeted by all the people in the Policy & Research team for a small goodbye party. It was very sweet and unexpected, and I even got to give a little thank you speech. But the sweetest thing of all was the blueberry tart cake they bought for the occasion. These people know how to make an intern happy!

Working at Nesta has been an eye-opener for me. 4 weeks ago, I knew pretty much nothing of the world of policy-making and innovation, and now I’m subscribed to at least a dozen newsletters on the topic.  It has shown me that there are so many fascinating projects going on around us that we don’t hear about unless it’s related to our line of work, and we should put more effort into discovering and understanding them. I’ve learnt that working in the world of policy research is fascinating, but most importantly I’ve met people with amazing stories and unique perspectives on the world. And of course, my fancy political small talk has really upped its game.

 

Thank you for having me, Nesta, and thank you Charity Insights for making it happen.

 

Highlight of the week: The proper answer should be “All the experiences I’ve lived and all the things I’ve learned over my time at Nesta.” But really, it’s the blueberry tart cake.

Read Candle in the Wind in full

I guess I’m a professional working adult now.  I have a 9 to 5 schedule (being able to relax after work and not have to study pleases me), I commute on the tube at peak hours (and eavesdrop on busy businessmen’s conversations) and I get to tell people I work in Temple (like a hotshot lawyer in a TV series).

These middle weeks have been where I’ve done the bulk of my work. I wrote a news report on digital democracy, did an extensive literature review on data economy, and compiled about 10 case studies on different enterprises from around the world. Basically, I read a lot and wrote a lot. And I loved it. Of course, I did this sitting on a couch whilst looking out the window at the Tate Modern on one side and the London Eye on the other, because have I mentioned the views here are amazing?

In between all this research, I was also invited to attend a presentation by a colleague who works on government innovation. Aside from a great learning experience on public speaking, it was interesting to see a topic I’d been reading so much about come to life in such an engaging and captivating way, and I feel very fortunate I was able to attend.

Another exciting thing happened: I met the group of interns at Nesta. What a lovely bunch! It was nice talking to people closer to my age, and hearing about their experiences after university was very valuable and relevant to my near future. But more importantly, they taught me the tricks for getting bigger rations at the café downstairs and all the juicy office gossip.

I can’t believe I only have 1 week left of my internship. Next week’s post is going to be filled with electronic tears and Adele songs playing in the background. Can’t wait.

 

Highlight of the week: Being introducing by the interns to a life-changing falafel place just 5 minutes away from the office. The rations are huge, the falafels are so crispy, the salads are amazing and the hummus is revolutionary.

Read Professional Working Adult in full

My first impression when waking into Nesta’s main office was: “Am I in Google?” From the colourful shapes and designs spread across the walls to the couches by the window overlooking the OXO Tower, it felt like I had stepped into the hippest Silicon Valley start up by a recent Stanford graduate in the world. And this feeling was only reaffirmed throughout the week.

Nesta’s work, put simply, is innovation. They aim to take ground breaking ideas and make them a reality, covering pretty much all topics imaginable, like healthcare, democracy and policy-making. My personal focus for the next 4 weeks will be a mixture of investigating personal data economy and digital democracy, which is the coolest project I’ve ever done.

Of course, I started by just reading through a mountain of documents trying to wrap my head around some of the complex data science concepts that were going to be my bread and butter for the next month (disclaimer: I still don’t fully understand them). I was even able to attend interviews so I could hear from the experts themselves, which was incredibly revealing. Never have I learnt so much about a topic in so little time (if you don’t count exams week).

Peppered throughout my week were coffee breaks with various employees. Although some did invite me to a hot chocolate and therefore I might be biased, I can say they were some of the nicest people I’ve ever met. They took time from their busy schedules to tell me about their research topics and I can honestly say after hearing them talk, I would like to do an internship with every single one of them.

I hope- no, I know, that in the weeks to come I will get to meet some more amazing people and learn even more about the world of politics and data science, and of course some more hot chocolate would be nice.

 

Highlight of the week: Watching a Wimbledon match whilst having strawberries and cream during our lunch break on the 6^th floor terrace overlooking the River Thames.

Read Am I in Google? in full