This review was submitted over 4 years ago, so some of the information it contains may no longer be relevant.
Rating
-
The Role
-
The Company
-
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
The friendly atmosphere and support throughout the placement made it very enjoyable. From the start I was welcomed by all and quickly felt comfortable in the environment and role. There are times when work piles up, but is always manageable within the team.
I received support from all parts of the company, including the directors. As students, we are all treated equally, with as much responsibility and opportunity as long-term employees. A very welcoming and fulfilling introduction into working life.
There is a lot of guidance throughout the placement. Being sat next to my supervisor means help is always close by and always welcome. Besides management, everyone is very friendly and social. Being in a shared office space means everyone is easy to talk to, if you need help or advice. Anyone from the upstairs development team is only a Skype message away.
Could get very busy at times, but there is always room to share work between the team, and everyone is open to offer help or guidance. Never left bored with nothing to do.
We are each assigned our own customers for which we were solely responsible for supporting after our initial 7 weeks of training. Fairly daunting at first, but there is always help at arms-length to help ease you into the support role.
A lot of the skills acquired in relation to the job role are fairly specific to the company and industry. However the support role forces a lot of social and organisational skills to be honed very quickly (Often working with customers on multiple different tasks). Also helps gain an understanding of general coding and database management processes that will be present in most computer science jobs.
The Company
Everyone is very friendly and social. Being in a shared office space means everyone is easy to talk to, if you need help or advice. Anyone from the upstairs development team is only a Skype message away.
From application to leaving, everything was set in place flawlessly. All usually managed by someone from the admin team, I was sent emails and updates of any formalities/important dates/forms/processes/etc. to guide me throughout the placement. Training was well organised to ease you into the roll before being placed into our teams and assigned customers that we would work with during the placement.
7 Weeks of initial training, to give you an introduction to the company, industry, and product that you will be working with/in. Also to give you a chance to develop some base level skills for you to work on such as; SQL and queries, C# programming, and MES theory. Also paid for an initial 6 weeks of accommodation at a local hotel to have some time to re-locate smoothly, which was very helpful when coming straight out of months of university exams.
Flexi Time
Subsidised Canteen
Sports and Social Club
Company Car
Subsidised/Company Gym
National Travel
International Travel
Financial Bonus
Company Parties/Events
Staff Sales/Staff Shop
Above 25 days holiday
Working from home
Healthcare from home
Healthcare/Dental
Travel loan
Lighthouse is still expanding, with rapid growth since its inception. A lot of the workforce is actually made up of previous placement and graduate students. There is a lot of opportunity to return as a full time employee.
The Culture
Very good. After the initial 7 weeks of training, all of the new graduates/placement students got to know each other very well. There was a fairly large group of new graduates and students. This meant social groups were built from the start and organised a lot of events outside of work as you would at university.
Living costs can vary quiet heavily depending on the area, but fairly standard living costs outside of central London. Just need to make sure that you make time for a lot of viewings to find the best place at the best price point. Less rooms can be lot more expensive than 3+ unless you can settle for small sizes.
Living closer to Crawley gives the best range for social activities. Large and popular sports facilities for just about anything, as well as many local bars and a club. Not too far to get the train to Brighton for a day/night trip either.
Weekly drinks at a local pub after work on Fridays, as well as many other special occasion meals and events organised by the company. This included an annual Christmas party with an overnight hotel room.
Details
Placement (10 Months+)
South East
June 2017