Platform Application Engineer Review

On the whole I enjoyed my year working for Intel. The work I was doing was interesting and new to me. As well as this the people I have been working with, both my team and the larger organisation have been great to work with. There have been some activities I have had to do that have been less than engaging however, these would exist in any role in most any company.

I felt that I was very valued by my colleagues, at no point was an idea or viewpoint of mine looked down upon because I was "just an intern". Throughout my placement I have been encouraged to voice any thoughts or ideas I've had for a new/different point of view.

There was a lot of support provided by my supervisor in the form of one on one meetings and regular reviews. We also worked with each other every day and I have always felt that should I need any help I could talk to him and get a useful answer quickly. This help was extended to my not just by my supervisor but also the rest of the team I regularly worked with.

There have been occasions where I have felt that I have been too busy though also times where I have wanted more work to do. This is just the nature of the role I have been in on my placement though as the work being done doesn't come in a constant stream. Overall however I felt that I had a good workload and if anything I would have liked to do more work than I generally found myself doing.

I had a few responsibilities during my placement as I was asked to keep on top of certain tasks through the year and treated like any other member of the team. This meant that if the work I had been asked to do wasn't done it could have had a quick and negative impact on the team.

I received a lot of formal training as well as learning a lot on the job from the people I was working with. A lot of what I have done here wont directly assist in my studies however, it has developed my overall understanding of technology and given me a broader skillset in my general area of studies.

The office is a relaxed place where I was encouraged to work but to enjoy the work I was doing. When working in the lab and in generally solving problems it is encouraged to be creative to find a solution. The team I work with are a close team and regularly socialise outside of work too which makes working in the office a much more friendly place.

The placement is well organised, with each intern having a supervisor and a manager to support them. At Intel there is a lot of procedures in place for interns as Intel have been running an intern program for many years. Over this time it seems that problems are worked out and these procedures are improved. The whole process I have found to be relatively simple in terms of application, interview, starting, training, etc.

I have been sent to several technical training days which I found very useful, these were at the expense of the company. I was also given many opportunities to develop myself personally as I was sent to attend events both in the UK and abroad, again this was an investment by the company.

Though I have enjoyed my time working for Intel, I have not enjoyed living in Swindon. Therefore I would be very interested to work for this company in the future however, not so much in this location. With Intel this is a viable option as they are a global company with sites all over the world.

The interns are encouraged to socialise as a community and so organised regular evenings out and several trips away. I also joined some of the clubs at Intel and found it easy to socialise with non placement student employees also. Overall the social scene amongst everyone working at Intel in good.

My rent was slightly more than what seemed to be the average however, I was in a nice flat in the middle of the old town where there are many shops and bars etc. Going to the local bars, shops, and restaurants seemed to be fairly average. It was easy to live on a small budget if needed but also easy to visit nicer, more expensive places for better experience and/or quality.

Swindon does not have a university in the city and so the nightlife seems less than what I have been used to have lived in a university town before moving here. That said there are many nice bars and pubs that are very close to where I lived that I would regularly visit with various groups of people (interns, colleagues, flatmates, etc.)

I found that there were not many things to do outside of work. With that said I did not look very hard and could probably have found some more things to do had I been more interested or active in seeking these things out. I was already happy with my pre existing hobbies of things like running, cycling, computer gaming, and so on.