NetWatch & the value of our internship

NetWatch are excited to have recently offered positions to three students on the annual NetWatch Internship commencing September 2020. Following the completion of our recruitment process, we took some time to reflect upon why internships are incredibly valuable opportunities for students to gain an understanding of the working world and develop skills that are sought after by employers.

– Why should students consider undertaking an internship placement with NetWatch?

A yearlong placement enables a student to step into a real-life working environment as a full-time employee, inevitably preparing them for their future in the working world. This includes developing a wealth of employability skills such as time management, workload management, people skills, communication and IT skills, and more. Not only this, but embarking upon a placement allows a student to learn specific industry skills. Our industry is notoriously difficult to obtain work experience in, and to that end we offer a unique opportunity for students to skill-up in OSINT investigations and gain a competitive edge when battling the job market post-university.

We have three employees who joined us on placement years who now work as full-time analysts at NetWatch. Undertaking a placement year allows hard-working and enthusiastic students to prove themselves a valuable member of staff throughout their time here, allowing us to offer them full-time positions if available at the end of their placement or degree. If students decide not to return to our company, then a placement year will nonetheless provide them with enhanced employability prospects from the experiences and skills learned.

– Why do NetWatch offer internship placements and what is the value of them to the business?

Having been offering placement opportunities for five years now, students who join us for a year-long post have proven a pleasure to have on the team. We find that placement students who seek roles that will teach them new skills and provide them with new experiences always have a great attitude and willingness to learn and grow.

We give our placement students important tasks and responsibilities from the get-go, and also encourage them to come up with independent projects to work on throughout the year, which simultaneously benefit both the business and provide the students with great CV worthy content. We have had placement students come up with some great ideas about how to improve the business, adding significant value to the company.

Furthermore, onboarding placement students also allows the company to have a pool of candidates who we can offer positions to later down the line, thus streamlining our recruitment process.

NetWatch have worked closely with Bodrun Nahar, the Employability and Placement Manager at the University of Warwick. Here, Bodrun discusses her experience working with NetWatch:

Having collaborated with Netwatch Global for five consecutive years, I sincerely believe their placement programme is designed to develop and challenge the student’s skills from the outset. The placement is also a unique opportunity to gain experience in a sector that is notoriously difficult to break into. The world of work is a new experience for many students. Netwatch Global recognises this and have a dedicated management team who support the students throughout the duration of the placement. They are committed to developing the students and value the contribution that a student brings to the organisation. This is reflected by Netwatch giving students the opportunity to lead on specific projects to generate creative solutions to business needs.

It is a pleasure to work with Netwatch Global on mutually beneficial work placements. This sentiment has also been echoed by students who have completed the placement, some of whom are now permanent employees within the organisation!

Keelie Renwick, a University of Warwick student currently studying Global Sustainable Development, started with us on the NetWatch internship in September 2019. Here, Keelie discusses her experience on the internship:

Undertaking a placement year at NetWatch Global has provided me with a unique opportunity for personal and professional development beyond that of the academic world. Upon commencing the 12-month internship in September 2019, myself and the other placement students participated in an induction week, during which we were taught the basis for successful Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) investigations. Since then, we have completed numerous investigations for our clients, which range from law firms to governmental departments, covering a wide range of geographical and circumstantial contexts. We have also been tasked with completing an individual project; producing our own piece of vital research for the growth and development of the company. These projects have a very wide scope, and allowed us to hone in on a particular OSINT specialism or business function, in which we were invited to bring skills and knowledge from our academic studies.

6 months into my internship, I was also entrusted to take on a key role in the successful procurement of a large investigation for a new client, and through doing so had a unique exposure to various business functions and in-house departments, such as Special Projects, Strategy and Commerce. I have found my experience of the placement program at NetWatch to be incredibly rewarding, and the other interns and staff alike are encouraging and collaborative, which made for a very friendly office! One outcome of undertaking a placement year that took me by surprise was how I have learned of my value in the business, something which will undoubtedly carry me into my future career with confidence.