My name is Eilidh and I’m a Geography student entering into my fourth year. This academic year I undertook a six-month internship where I worked within the University’s Sustainability Team on an independent project. My internship took place from mid-November 2025 until the 1st of May 2026. My project was to format a submission for the ‘Sustainability Leadership Scorecard’, a framework tool developed by the organisations EAUC (Environmental Association of Universities and Colleges) and AUDE (Association of University Directors of Estates) for universities and colleges across the UK to use in self-assessing their sustainability related activities and policies. The scorecard I worked with is split into various sections and sub-sections which helped me to focus on particular issues each week of my internship. My job primarily consisted of reviewing the University’s existing policies, action plans and activities which contributed towards sustainability targets and commitments. Once I had reviewed this activity, I identified ways the university could improve and formatted a narrative and score to be implemented into the scorecard.
I worked with a large number of policy documents and plans during my internship as well as data available across the university website. By working with this document data, I learned skills in policy analysis, information gathering and critical analysis. These skills are invaluable in going forward with my degree and future career. At times during my internship, I required information from individuals outside of my department and so organised meetings with people both internal and external to the university. I also had bi-weekly catch-up meetings with my manager to discuss my progress with the project and the responses I was working on that week. In the last week of my internship, I presented the complete scorecard to the sustainability team.
I had initially applied to a number of ABDN summer internships in my second year, and while I had interviews for two of them, I was unsuccessful in getting the jobs. However, my experience getting interviewed and applying made me more confident in adapting my CV for particular job roles, writing cover letters, and conducting myself in interviews. In September 2025, I arranged an appointment with one of the university career advisors. This meeting helped me to focus my career development goals more and to think more about what kind of skills I wanted to develop for my future. When the next round of ABDN internships were released, I focussed my attention on only one of the internships which most interested me and was most aligned with the career path I am most interested in pursuing. With this new focus behind me, I was successful in my application and began my internship working in the Estates & Facilities offices on campus. I believe my success was in part due to my experiences applying earlier that year. Learning from my failures helped me develop my CV and cover letters to make them more focussed for the job role I wanted. I also arranged another appointment before I submitted my application, where one of the careers team looked over my draft cover letter, which helped me to submit the best version of my application I could have.
My experience using the career service throughout my application preparation process, and in completing my internship, has allowed me to develop key transferable skills in communication, data analysis, critical thinking, and time management. My confidence in applying to and interviewing for jobs has also improved. I would highly recommend applying to an ABDN internship for anyone looking to focus their CV and develop their skills.
My top tips for anyone wishing to apply for an ABDN internship is to very carefully consider the internship you are applying for. Make sure to thoroughly read the job descriptions of any internship you apply for and consider applying only to opportunities you that fit your skills and interests. Don’t be ashamed to ask advice from the careers service during the application process, they are there to help.
Good luck.
