This review was submitted over 4 years ago, so some of the information it contains may no longer be relevant.
Rating
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The Role
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The Company
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The Culture
- 1. To what extent did you enjoy your work placement or internship?
- 2. To what extent did you feel valued by your colleagues?
- 3. To what extent were you given support and guidance by management/your supervisor(s)?
- 4. How busy were you on a daily basis?
- 5. How much responsibility were you given during your placement?
- 6. To what extent did/will the skills you developed, and training you received, assist you in your degree studies and beyond?
- 7. What was the general atmosphere in your office?
- 8. How well organised was the overall work placement or internship set up?
- 9. In terms of personal training and development, to what extent did the company or firm invest in you?
- 10. What were the perks on your work placement?
- 11. How appealing are future employment prospects within the organisation?
- 12. Was there a good social scene amongst any fellow placement students/colleagues?
- 13. What was the cost of living and socialising in the area you worked in?
- 14. What was the Nightlife like in the area you worked?
- 15. Were there many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work?
The Role
I enjoyed my time at Dstl, really nice people and interesting work.
Felt like they were interested in me and where I wanted to go in my career. Seemed happy to take on interns for summer. Although wasn't included in meeting.
Didn't see supervisors much, however they would always provide assistance if asked and were friendly.
Was given a set of projects which I could choose to work on, and could take on as many or as little as I liked, so easy to choose how much workload you have
For the most part left to progress on my work by myself and trusted to get stuff done without oversight, could always ask for help though.
Learnt matlab and extented my python programming skills while at Dstl which will be very useful for the future.
The Company
The office was open plan, so was light and had a relaxed atmosphere. Everybody was friendly and welcoming and didn't feel pressured at all. Had things like a weekly quiz between departments which was fun and provided a nice break.
At the start of the internship I was given a list of projects which I could choose to work on. This was really good as it let me choose what to work on and how much to take on. The student tasks were separate to what the full time staff were working on, however they still felt useful and valued.
Other than IT inductions had no formal training. I was however given time to learn matlab on the job which was good.
Flexi Time
Sports and Social Club
Company Parties/Events
Staff Sales/Staff Shop
The work and people are great working at Dstl, however the pay and progression are not as good as you would get doing similar work elsewhere. Don't offer interns a job if they do well, but do get fasttracked through first stages of application process.
The Culture
Have a group for organising events for new starters. Also take quite a few interns over summer over whole site so people did quite a bit in the evening etc,
Found it difficult to find a place to stay for the duration of the internship and rent was particularily cheap, but apart from that it was normal, what you would expect costs.
There are societies like university societies for staff interests which you can join, seem to have quite a few over a range of interests
Details
Internship (1 Month+)
South East
September 2015