Software Engineering Intern Review

by Metaswitch Networks

This review was submitted over 4 years ago, so some of the information it contains may no longer be relevant.

Rating

3.9/5
  • The Role
    3.8
  • The Company
    4.2
  • The Culture
    3.6

    The Role

  • 1. To what extent did you enjoy your work placement or internship?
  • I hadn't written a lot of code before starting and I found the process of learning new langauges and approaches to a problem interesting and ultimately very satisfying when things 'just worked'. Outside of work the social events (pub trips, sports and hobbies) were a good way to catch up with other interns and meet other employees, which was interesting as well as useful.

    4/5

  • 2. To what extent did you feel valued by your colleagues?
  • I was placed in a team with four other permanent employees which I felt was a good size - enough that there was always somebody else about but not so many as to not know everyone reasonably well. Even though I lacked experience and had to ask lots of questions (in particular to one colleague assigned as my mentor) I wasn't made to feel like a burden, and received positive comments on many aspects of my work.

    5/5

  • 3. To what extent were you given support and guidance by management/your supervisor(s)?
  • Within my team I was assigned a seperate manager and mentor. The former I met with weekly to discuss my overall progress, whilst the latter served as day-to-day support. Having this split meant sometimes receiving conflicting pieces of advice but generally I think it was a positive thing as it meant my mentor had more time for me whereas my manager had to split his time between the other team members.

    5/5

  • 4. How busy were you on a daily basis?
  • My project followed agile development with weekly 'sprint' meetings to discuss progress towards goals. This meant that there was always a short-term deadline to have a function working and presentable which kept me busy fairly evenly throughout the placement. Towards the end I did feel like my manager was expecting a lot of me in an ever-decreasing time frame but this wasn't the case for most of the internship.

    4/5

  • 5. How much responsibility were you given during your placement?
  • After an initial week of ramp-up I was surprisingly quickly put to work on the product code which meant I was directly responsible for not pushing changes that would break the build or introduce serious bugs. Most of the decision-making on where my project was going however was out of my hands, though I was given reasonable freedom on deciding how to achieve functionality on a lower level of detail.

    4/5

  • 6. To what extent did/will the skills you developed, and training you received, assist you in your degree studies and beyond?
  • Primarily, the experience I've gained of programming langauges (in particular Python) will be useful to my future career as well as programming aspects of my degree. As a consequence I've decided to take on a computing simulation project this academic year which I might not have felt confident enough to take on previously. Aside from the technical detail of the languages themselves, working on large codebases using Git and SVN tools will also hopefully be relevant to my future career. Finally, Metaswitch definitely value the 'soft skills' of team communication and presentations and these will be useful to most people in some form!

    3/5

    The Company

  • 7. What was the general atmosphere in your office?
  • The office was open-plan with teams clustered around tables, which made communication relatively easy. The atmosphere was reasonably relaxed but it still had the vibe of a hard-working environment. There were a few quirky touches, such as the 'Doom Sphere' whose colour indicated the state of the build, and many diagrams and illustations drawn around the place.

    4/5

  • 8. How well organised was the overall work placement or internship set up?
  • Overall I got the impression that HR had put a fair amount of effort into giving interns a good summer experience. Before I started I was told which department I would be working in and put into contact with my manager, which allowed me to find out a little on the sort of things I'd be working on. During the summer technical and some non-technical talks were put on both in the department and company-wide aimed at interns which were generally interesting. HR asked us for feedback on our experiences more than once over the summer.

    5/5

  • 9. In terms of personal training and development, to what extent did the company or firm invest in you?
  • The company invested the time and resources needed to train me how to code well. In addition, presentation sessions were organised for all interns that gave us time out of work to present on a topic of our choice to other interns and receive feedback from then as well as the session organisers on our presentation style.

    4/5

  • 10. What were the perks on your work placement?
  • Flexi Time

    Subsidised/Company Gym

    Financial Bonus

    Company Parties/Events

    5/5

  • 11. How appealing are future employment prospects within the organisation?
  • Towards the end of my internship I was invited to take a second interview. The interview lasted all day and included a paid-for meal and hotel stay the night before (even though I already had a place to stay close to the office!) and was fairly in-depth. They got back to me really quickly afterwards (within a couple of days) and made me an offer to come back after my final year at university. Since my experiences over the summer have been overall positive and the terms they were offering me were good I accepted the offer, and look forward to returning next year!

    5/5

    The Culture

  • 12. Was there a good social scene amongst any fellow placement students/colleagues?
  • The company paid for starting and leaving drinks for all employees including interns, and this helped foster a social scene outside of work between interns and employees. As well as this, there were a few different sports and hobby clubs which were mostly made up of permanent employees but were in my experience welcoming to interns (I played football which was fairly non-serious and occurred on a semi-regular basis). Finally, I lived in a company house with at one point as many as 8 other interns. Though living with a large number of people like this might not suit everyone, it meant that there were always other people about at home and particularly later in the summer when everyone knew each other better we were able to organise our own pub-trips and meet-ups with other interns independently from work.

    3/5

  • 13. What was the cost of living and socialising in the area you worked in?
  • As I lived in a company house the rent was subsidised and worked out at less than £70 per week, taken from my salary in arrears without any deposit. As a student with little savings this was ideal and meant I didn't need to borrow money to make the first month's rent! Being based on the outskirts of London, the cost of food and drink wasn't particularly cheap but still much less expensive than it would be in a more central location. I definitely never felt that I couldn't go out and socialise because of the cost.

    4/5

  • 14. What was the Nightlife like in the area you worked?
  • There was very little proper nightlife (i.e. nightclubs or late-license bars) in the area close to the office, though the selection of pubs for a more chilled evening was very good. However, being part of Greater London granted access to most of the city's nightlife via the excellent public transport and fortunately there was a reasonably reliable nightbus service for after the trains had stopped. Make sure you get yourself an Oyster card first though!

    4/5

  • 15. Were there many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work?
  • As I mentioned previously, there were a number of clubs for both sports and hobbies. Compared with being at university a medium-sized company cannot compare on the scope and size of such clubs and societies but they did well regardless. Since the company didn't enforce strict working hours I was able to take a little extra lunch break to play football some days, though to balance my workload this meant working a little later or taking shorter lunches other days. In addition, over the summer the company ran an interdepartmental competition comprising many different sports/activities which I got involved with a few of.

    5/5

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Details

Internship (1 Month+)

Information Technology

London

November 2015


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