First Foundry Analyst Review

I really enjoyed it. I thought it would be really good but it exceeded even my expectations. I never once dreaded going to work (despite the early starts), and at the end I felt sad to go (but excited to go back next year). Most of the other interns also enjoyed it as much as I did, and we were pleasantly surprised at how good it was.

Everyone I met was friendly and helpful, even if I didn't understand something. The interns were trusted with real work that make a difference to the company. I even got some offers of help from colleagues when I had a solo presentation to give. In addition, the interns got invited to various social events outside of work by our teams, which is a welcome I wasn't expecting.

There were many meetings at the start to get me and the other two interns on the team caught up with the project we were working on this summer. We were given a couple of weeks to do tutorials on the languages we would be coding in and to familiarise ourselves with the existing code. However, once we started we ran into a few problems that could only be solved by finding people from other teams who had the relevant experience for what we were working on. It would have been easier if there was someone in our team who understood the project.

There was a lot of work to do and we weren't expected to complete the project by the end of the summer. I found this to be difficult as I wasn't sure how much work was expected of me. In addition to the project work the interns had various other activities to do, such as presenting to some vice presidents about the summer, or participating in a mini "hackathon" (where we had to think up product and present it). The mix of different things made a good balance.

The three interns on the team and one other graduate were the main contributors of the project over the summer. This meant a lot of decisions were up to us, which gave us quite a bit of responsibility. In addition, we were given the opportunity to present in front of vice presidents, with our presentations left to our own devices. I liked this as there wasn't a lot of interference from other people.

Skills such as organisation and working in an agile way as part of a team in a bigger company really helped me prepare for working life. Also, gaining the experience with the programming languages and tools that I used will help me in my last year at university, especially as I'm working on my dissertation project, so learning how to be organised and work well has helped. Also, presentation skills and confidence was boosted, which will definitely help me in the future

Extra activities such as a wii tennis tournament (which I won with another intern), and an "egg-drop" challenge really helped the office feel less corporate. The technology part of the business seems more like a start-up company, which is what they were trying to achieve. Also, the dress sense was more business casual (where ties and suits are extremely rare), and Fridays were "dress down Fridays", where jeans were commonly worn. This made me feel at home and made me enjoy the experience even more.

There were a couple of people who ran the overall internship, and a couple who focused solely on the technology interns. Between them, various activities were organised and they were all ran really well. Despite this only being the second year the internship, there were rarely any hiccups, even for the bigger events that were being organised in London (and us having to deal with all the train strikes). I was very impressed, especially because the people running the internship were very accessible and easy to talk to. They were always willing to help us.

They invested quite a lot. For example, giving us experience in presenting and networking. There were quite a few networking events where we were able to talk to quite a few people from different aspects of the company. This was really interesting and I learnt a lot. There were also tours organised (by our request) of the data centre and an opportunity to do call listening in the customer care section.

Very appealing. This is a company that cares for its employees, and sees them as people rather than resources. There are many perks to the job that I think will help me in the future (such as healthcare and flexible benefits). Also, because the organisation is so large, there is the possibility to work in different locations and move up in my career. I think I'll really enjoy working here.

Very good! We organised to meet up and do activities sometimes at the weekend or after work. Simple activities such as going for a cocktail after work. We even mingled well with the graduates, who often came out with us too. I made some good friends this summer and I hope to see them next year at work. I've also organised to live with one of the interns when we start work at the company next year.

The cost of rent was expensive, and personally I found restaurants and bars expensive too (such as paying £5 or over for a pint of beer). However, I'm used to cheaper prices, so perhaps this is the norm in the South of the country. Despite this, I found myself to easily afford this with the money I earned over the summer. I don't think living there will be too difficult money-wise as the company offers good salaries.

The town we worked in had little nightlife (in terms of clubs). There were nice bars and pubs, which we sometimes went to at lunch time or after work. However, most of us were living in the city nearby, which had lots of clubs and bars open late. I rarely stay out very late, so I found the social scene to be very good, as the city offered a wide range of activities. I know of one intern though who was staying in the town we were working in, and she found it difficult to get home after a night out (due to taxis being expensive and trains not running that late)

Most of these opportunities we organised ourselves, such as meeting up at the weekend for a day out in London or going to a thai festival. This was fun and we enjoyed doing different things. The city we lived in had many opportunities, such as an extreme assault course popping up one weekend, and the Pride festival. We all enjoyed the different activities available.