Programming Intern Review

I generally enjoyed it a lot. I had a lot of freedom as an employee, and Cambridge is a beautiful city to work in. The atmosphere has been great. I have felt like a proper member of the team, with a lot of control over my work and the direction it has taken.

My opinion has always been acknowledged and considered by my colleagues. I haven't felt like "just an intern", but an actual employee who is treated with the same level of respect as everybody else. Much of the work I've been given has been tasks that only I have the knowledge to complete, which has certainly reinforced this belief.

My manager took a lot of time to make sure I was able to carry out my work without any problems, and at what stage I was at with a given task. That said, most of the other staff members primarily have a background in science, whereas the work I do is programming. Often this has lead to me needing to solve complicated problems by myself, as no-one else is able to assist me.

As the job is research-based, the projects I work on rely heavily on one's initiative. Thus, I have had a strong control over the amount of work I do. This means I've been able to maintain my own balance, and not be too constrained by deadlines, or bored from a lack of things to do. However, this might be a problem for someone who dislikes such freedom.

I was given a lot of responsibility. After becoming familiar with the software I would be working with, I was allowed (and encouraged) to make my own suggestions about what projects I could work on. All of the work I have done on my placement have been things that I suggested myself.

From a pure programming perspective, the knowledge and general experience I've gained will help in any similar circumstance. However, as I intend to enter into a different industry after finishing university, it may not be the case that everything I've learned will be transferable. This is more due to my own plans rather than being a fault of the company.

My office was very relaxed in general. I shared it with one other intern, with whom I worked. We had enough resources on hand to do everything we needed, and enough space each. Unfortunately the position of our office is close to large machinery used for engineering tests, which makes a lot of loud noise every so often.

Schlumberger has a long history recruiting interns for placement years, which is made clear by how well they organise everything. The training I had was very well planned out from the start. Everything I needed to know was made very clear from the beginning, and I was quickly introduced to everybody I would need to know to get help with whatever I needed.

The internship for my position lasts 14 months, with a two-month handover period between the old and new intern. This system works such that the experienced intern can teach the new intern everything they've learned over the past year, to minimise the knowledge lost after an intern leaves. This is effective, since the company didn't need to invest in external training materials, but the knowledge can still be passed on. Of course, anything not taught in those two months then IS lost.

While I have really enjoyed my time here, I have been planning on entering a different industry upon finishing my degree, and this placement hasn't swayed me in a different direction. Thus I consider it highly unlikely that I will pursue a career here further down the line. My main goal in completing a placement here was to get a sense of what the programming industry is like in general.

Yes. There are a lot of interns at Schlumberger (roughly 20), with a wide range of interests so we're always doing things outside of work. Some new hobbies I've picked up since coming here are badminton, rock climbing, and knitting, none of which I'd done much of before. I've made some friends that I'll definitely keep in touch with after I finish here.

Cambridge is one of the most expensive cities in England. As such, it costs quite a lot to live here. I ended up renting outside, and I drive to/from work about half an hour each way. Interns don't make as much as a full-time employee, meaning you have to be quite careful with your money, more so than usual.

Cambridge is well known for it's large range of pubs. There's a very wide variety, which is great for somebody like me since that's what I prefer. However, the nightclub scene is sorely lacking, so if that's what you're interested in you'll be disappointed. In the end it depends on what you enjoy.

There were. Aside from social events with other interns, everyone in the company was often invited to tech events within Cambridge, such as workshops and presentations. Once a year in summer the company has a special event, where they hire segways, bouncy castles, zorb balls and other stuff like that. There were free drinks too.