Aquarius Population Health

I’m Catherine, a former summer intern – now junior researcher at Aquarius. At the beginning of the summer, I was awarded a UCL Advances internship placement, which allowed me to work at Aquarius for 8 weeks and was fully funded to cover living expenses. I am delighted to have been offered a continuing post with the company as I had an amazing experience over the summer. I want to share what it was like to have an internship, particularly with those who have an interest in health economics, enterprise, and consulting, and are considering applying for an internship opportunity.

linkedinIt is the people that make working at Aquarius great. The team are so friendly, fun and approachable. It has been an absolute pleasure to work with such passionate, intelligent and hardworking people – and an added bonus to converse and learn from them.

In interning at Aquarius, I felt that I was valued as part of the team and could make a positive impact on the company’s future. Interns here can expect to be given lots of responsibility and expected to deliver results to high standards. However, while this was challenging – I had to learn new skills and learn about lots of diseases AND how to run a business – I think this has given me lots of long term benefits such as a variety of experiences, networks, skills, knowledge and a job to be passionate about.

My time was very short however the internship programme was arranged in a way that I could get involved in all aspects if the company and assist in many ways. I have worked with clients and collaborators on a project, analysed data, attended a conference where my data analysis was presented in a presentation, supported a bidding process for project tenders, managed the hosting of the company website, written a social media report for the marketing team, represented the company at a networking event and even drafted Aquarius’ first employee handbook! Through these activities, I have been able to apply my knowledge and skills in a professional environment from supporting project delivery and business development to speaking to health economists and consultants about their jobs and industry insights.

It has been tremendous to be part of this organisation – it has created many avenues to embark on a journey of discovery, in health economics or otherwise, and I look forward to improving these skills further as I start my career.

My one piece of advice to interns in any sector is to take a step out of your comfort zone, rise to the challenge, ask questions and don’t be afraid to use your initiative – it is down to you to make things happen for yourself! This will broaden your learning horizons, and help discover new things that you like.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my internship – that’s just a taste of what I have experienced, but I am more than happy to speak to anyone interested in becoming an intern at Aquarius, so you know what to expect if you are successful.

Catherine Mak, Junior Researcher (previously Summer Intern)

Contact me at Catherine.mak@aquariusph.com, @enirehtackam