A Summer Intern Experience at KeyNest

By Jake Rodrigues, KeyNest London intern in summer 2022:

It is always difficult to really do justice to an internship in a few hundred words, not least a few months at KeyNest. I began looking for a summer internship in March as something to help pass the time and to gain more experience for my CV, having worked for several months during my year abroad in France. After two interviews, I was offered a place on the UK team. Looking back, the tough questions in the interview process really gave me an insight into what stores and customers would ask me and what I would do in the team!

My first day at KeyNest

On my first day, I made the rookie mistake of wearing a shirt and tie, despite knowing that the company was indeed a start-up! The team introduced themselves to me and we got started with the training right away. My senior colleague Irina was so patient with me and ensured that I understood everything as there was a lot to take in.

For the first few weeks, I still had some university meetings and my manager was very accommodating, allowing me to take an hour out each week to attend them. The drinks on the roof terrace on a Friday evening definitely helped me to settle in! 

KeyNest Team Summit experience

I was fortunate enough to go with the company for the KeyNest Team Retreat to Spain. The UK, French, Spanish, and US teams all came together for the Team Summit to discuss the year ahead. Although I was nervous at first as I hadn’t known everyone for very long, I was made to feel welcome immediately — not a lot of companies would have you jumping in the pool, playing football, and going karting with the founders!

During the summit, we set targets for the upcoming months and I was able to pitch some ideas I had after my first few weeks at KeyNest. The team was really receptive and open to new ideas and the target-setting session meant that the following months were extremely focused. After coming back from Spain, it felt like I’d been at KeyNest for months rather than weeks!

Day-to-day intern experience

My role at the company focalised around store recruitment over the phone or in person. I recruited my first store in person during my third week, but I did find it difficult to recruit over the phone. Eventually, I got past the nerves and found that I’d be more successful in person.

Since then, I’ve recruited 17 stores with a few weeks to go and thanks to my recruitment of eight new stores in my final months, I’m well on my way to hitting the target that was set in Spain. I also began to spearhead the device recovery in the UK team. Looking back, I’m happy to see that the target was increased many times and that I managed to attain it at every push. It’s great to see so many new stores being recruited without phones, which is definitely the way forward for the company.

My Favourite part of working at KeyNest

Besides playing football with the guys on a Wednesday evening or going for drinks on the terrace after work — was definitely the workplace environment. The office is driven, ambitious and passionate about pushing the company further, but still remains an enjoyable environment in which to work. With the team being so closely-knit, everyone is on hand to help, but is also there to have fun while working. If it’s not a riddle, a joke or a new ‘quote of the day’ on the board, it’s someone asking a hypothetical question that sparks a bit of lighthearted debate!

I’d never anticipated to enjoy working anywhere so much in such a short amount of time and I can confidently say I will miss coming into the Food Exchange every day. My time at KeyNest has surpassed my expectations and I’ve developed lots of organisational and critical thinking skills that I can take with me into my final year of university. It’s been a real privilege to work in the UK team, all of whom I will miss dearly. I’ll be following the company’s progress closely over the coming years!

My advice to KeyNest’s next intern is threefold: 

1. Don’t be afraid to ask questions when you start or indeed, at any point of the internship. Everyone is extremely welcoming, happy to help and has been in the same situation at some point.

2. KeyNest is always open to new ideas, so feel free to suggest anything you feel might improve how things are done.

3. If you’re going to Sainsbury’s at lunch, make sure you ask in case someone wants anything!