Intern Review

I really enjoyed the work I was given - it was varied and interesting. It was challenging but I felt well supported. There was also lots of other activities to get involved in as well as the work such as sport and other competitions and other people there seemed to genuinely enjoy their job so there was a good atmosphere.

Everyone was very friendly, not only within the team I was working in but also around the office in general. I felt very valued by my colleagues, everyone was always interested to hear about how I had been getting on with the work I was doing and I was always included in the planning meetings so I had I say in the work I was doing and the timescales I felt were reasonable.

I think the best thing about my placement at Metaswitch and the thing that (pleasantly) surprised me the most was how much support I received throughout my time there. Right at the start I was guided through installing the right software and getting my email set up and then I was given a programming book and some tasks to support me through learning the programming I needed to know. I sat next to my mentor who was always happy to answer any questions I had and my team had regular 'whiteboard sessions' where one member of the team would teach something useful to the rest of the team.

I felt like I always had something to do and often several things to do but I never felt so busy that I was stressing about getting everything done. Each day we had a quick meeting in the morning to discuss where we got to the day before and what our plan for the next day was. Timescales were therefore set by me and I could decide what a realistic workload for me looked like.

I felt that I was given a fair amount of responsibility because I was trusted to write code that would actually be used as part of the final product. I wasn't given loads of responsibility in the sense that I wasn't given any tasks that were really important to the final product or had the potential to break everything !

Throughout my eight week placement I programmed in three programming languages and made minor edits in a fourth language, which has enabled my to develop a better understanding of programming languages and how they differ. I received a lot of training, not just in programming but also in how to give good presentations and how to think more creatively.

The atmosphere in the office was brilliant. Everyone was always friendly and we went for lunch together as a group which was a nice break from work in the middle of the day. Everyone seemed happy to be there and we had numerous moments where everyone was speechless from laughing so much.

It was quite well organised.

I think they invested a lot in personal training and development. There was a session on presentations where you could receive feedback on your presentation skills, there was a session on creativity to help you think more creatively and there was a three day intern Hackathon where you had the opportunity to work in a smaller team. I also had weekly meetings with my manager to discuss how I was doing and what I felt my personal targets should be for the week ahead.

They have offered my further employment opportunities which I am quite likely to take up.

Yes, most of the other interns were really nice and were good fun to hang out with. There are lots of other interns there over summer so always plenty of people to hang out with at lunch or after work. There is an intern Hackathon and also other intern events to encourage interns to get to know each other so that helped as well.

About average.

Average

Lots of opportunities. To list a few: running, escape rooms, assassins, Geoguessr, cycling, basketball, badminton, pub trips, bake off, computer gaming tournament, rounders, tennis and so many more. They have a competition that runs throughout the summer where you are placed in a team and then every activity you do can gain you points if you win and then the team with the most points at the end of the summer wins.