Software Development Intern Review

I have been working at Expedia for only 2 months out of my year long placement but I already love working here! The environment is great; the offices are decorated in a really unique and colourful way, and it is so chilled, and everyone is friendly. I love coming to work every day.

Everyone is super friendly, and there are so many different social events to go to both inside and outside of work to get to know everyone better; like end of month drinks and team lunches. I also feel at ease being able to talk to them, and ask for their help whenever necessary.

I work pretty closely with my manager, and he's been a really great mentor to me; he is always really helpful and gives me advice whenever I need it. Even when the people in my team work from home they are always quick to answer my questions to help me out.

The balance of work here at Expedia is great; I always have things to do, and the work I do is really interesting, but we are also given the freedom to take breaks whenever we feel we need to, and go get a drink or spend some time in the arcade room.

I think the balance of responsibility I receive is perfectly balanced for the role I am in. For example, I am often given small starter projects to help me to learn things in a safe environment (i.e. the work I was doing wasn't too important, it was to help me learn), but I was also given the opportunity a number of times to contribute to my team's open source projects, which felt very daunting, but I appreciated that they trusted me with that responsibility.

In the short time I have been here I feel I have already developed so many of my skills, as well as gained new ones. Not only have I been able to improve my technical skills (e.g. writing better code, and working in a team on real project), but also my social skills and confidence with talking in front of people has increased too.

The office is a super enjoyable environment to work in; we have 2.5 floors in our building and the atmosphere is relaxed and fun throughout all of them; with an open plan office you can see and talk to anyone across the company, and games and drinks are spread throughout allowing for great places to chill.

I found that there was really great organisation not only with how I was offered the job; the communication the HR team provided with me before I even joined the company was great, but also when I got here and joined my team, they had work for me to do straight away and consistently ensured I had things to be doing while at work.

There are internal code academy courses which we are given the opportunity to take so that we can either gain new skills or develop existing ones; whether that be a coding language, or something like public speaking. We are also given the opportunity to teach some courses ourselves if we want.

The future employment prospects look great; the company puts a lot of effort into the interns, as the goal is to be able to keep them on in the future. Also because Expedia owns so many different brands, there are lots of opportunities within the company, meaning you can move around to different areas to find the best suited position.

Definitely. There are monthly drinks held within the company which all of the interns and permanent workers attend, as well as summer barbecues, and impromptu after work drinks at the local pubs on a friday. In addition, for the interns there are a lot of social events held to allow us to get to know each other better.

I don't live in the area so only have to pay for my commute, but it is as reasonable as London travel can be! The cost of socialising is fairly standard for London prices; however there is a spoons in Islington which is quite cheap, and we get a discount in the local pub which is a bonus!

There are loads of pubs and bars all around Islington, and we're only a short distance away from both Camden and Shoreditch which have great nightlife too. In addition to that, theres great transport links in Angel so you can travel anywhere very easily if you dont want to stay local.

There were lots of opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work; within the company there are lots of social events like the end of month drinks, barbecues, and breakfasts, as well as outside events which are held in the Expedia building. And everyone is very social so its easy to plan activities outside of work.