Careers
Tuesday 2 July 2024
Every summer Crest welcomes placement students from City University in London. The idea behind the scheme is for second-year students to spend a month of their summer in the workplace in a sector of their choosing – whether it’s related to their degree subject or not. This was Crest's fourth year taking part in the programme but our first year having two students at the same time. In this blog, Kristian, a criminology student, and Sabha, an economics with accounting student, together take us through why they chose Crest and what they did in their time here.
Why Crest?
Kristian: Given that I'm studying criminology, my main interest since starting my degree has been the criminal justice system in this country. Finding a company which lined up with my interests was so important to me and applying for this opportunity with Crest was a no-brainer. Seeing the previous reports they had published helped me to choose the placement with Crest as I could see they truly want to make an impact and help people.
Sabha: While economics with accounting doesn’t immediately shout ‘criminal justice system’, I’ve always been interested in the sector and a lot of my degree concerns how policies can impact both nationwide revenue and individuals in their day-to-day lives. I was therefore keen to broaden my understanding of the government from an alternative perspective.
What work did you do with Crest?
Spending every day in the office from 9-5, we fully assimilated into the Crest team and got to know their ways of working. Over the four weeks we were there, we had the chance to work across a range of projects with different people in the team. We both came here for an in-depth insight into the criminal justice system and we both agree we feel we’ve gained this in such a brief time.
We spent the first week of the placement familiarising ourselves with Crest’s branding, carrying out a series of tasks where we made infographics for past research projects. We dived into the research findings, identifying the key elements of each report that would fit into a limited space. Once we were comfortable with this work, we began working on the branding for current projects that were being published in real time. By the end of the placement, we had created over 80 visuals based on analysis carried out as part of Crest consultancy work on violence against women and girls as well as several for the ongoing think tank research on online fraud.
We also worked closely with the public inquiries team, supporting them with media monitoring for different statutory inquiries. We read through different press articles and provided summaries of the key message in each piece, helping give an overall picture of what the media was saying about certain inquiries. Not only did we learn about public inquiries and how much goes on behind the scenes but we could also see for ourselves how the narrative of an inquiry in the media could change from week to week.
At the beginning of the placement we were told we would have the opportunity to present a topic of our choosing to the whole team in our final week. The only requirement was that the topic had to be a current, pressing issue within the criminal justice system. We split our presentation between ourselves, where Sabha looked at court delays and Kristian considered prison backlogs. We discussed the reasons behind each problem then analysed what the different parties are pledging to do about it in their manifestos ahead of the general election. It was interesting seeing the wide range of approaches (for some none at all!) that parties gave on how they would deal with each problem. We were grateful for this opportunity as it pushed us out of our comfort zones but it was great to then field questions and discuss it with the wider team.
What did you enjoy the most about working at Crest?
Sabha: I think most of all I enjoyed getting to know everyone. The team was so welcoming and invited me to several get-togethers. From having one-to-one meetings, to working with everyone across the company, I’ve been able to see the collaborative and open company culture. I’ve also loved seeing my peers' individual dedication to the work. They know the work they are doing is impactful and it was inspiring to see how passionate everyone was for their research. I have felt the impact myself despite only working here for a month and I absolutely would jump at the opportunity to come back again.
Kristian: I loved everything about my time at Crest but one of the main things I enjoyed was seeing how impactful the work they do here is. Being here for the past four weeks has motivated me to be involved in projects like these in the future; to really make a difference in the world of criminal justice. The culture in the team was also really nice. Everyone was so welcoming and being able to have one-to-ones with people from all different parts of the company fuelled my ideas of what I want to do with my future endeavours. If anyone has an opportunity to work with Crest, I would highly recommend you take it.
If you do want to work with us, we are currently recruiting for our six-month internship programme. All you need is to be over 18, have at least a grade C (4) in GCSE Maths and English, and have an interest in learning more about the criminal justice system. Find out more by clicking here.
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