Technology Engineer Intern Review

I worked as a Technology Engineer Intern at American Express for 10 weeks during my summer break. It was an extremely enjoyable internship because the work was interesting (got to work with some cool technologies) and the people are truly fantastic. Everyone was willing to lend a helping hand. There were some awesome events held for the interns as well.

American Express has shown me the true meaning of Company Culture. Everyone was willing to lend a helping hand. Everyone would listen to what we needed to say. The project that I worked on actually will be put into production, unlike other companies that bin intern projects at the end.

During my project, I was rarely in a position where I didn't know what to do. If that situation did arise, it was dealt with very quickly by having regular meetings with and even working close to my supervisor. My supervisor did not necessarily know everything but he knew exactly who to ask to get that information.

Most days I worked on the main project. As expected, there were days where we were roadblocked by things not in our control. So we would take those days to do more documentation/refactor code and even do online courses that amex provide and even encourage the employees to look at.

Given quite a lot of responsibility afterall the project that I worked on was meant to go into production and be used by the entire organisation. We were also tasked with working with a startup for half a day everyweek. That was also quite a large responsibility as the owner had to trust that we would deliver good quality, scalable code.

It was very friendly and everybody was very supportive. Not at all the typical idea you would get from a big corporate bank type company. Along with everybody being friendly, during the world cup, there were several friendly competitions set up. Even the senior members in the company were quite down to earth.

From the assessment centre, it was clear to me that American Express are willing to invest a lot into their interning cohort. They organised a dinner the night before that allowed us to network with senior members of the company. At work, if we don't know how to use a technology, there are numerous courses available that can be done for free during company time to learn.

Yes during the internship, everyday most of the interns would eat lunch together. On friday's most of us would go to a nearby pub as well. Amex organised several events for the interns from around the country including a trip to the London Eye and a separate boat trip on the river thames.

Although I worked in the Burgess Hill Office, I stayed in Brighton for the duration of the internship. The cost of living was higher compared to Burgess Hill but still much less than the usual price I have to pay in London where I come from. Going out often did not take affect my wallet as much as I thought it would.

Once again, in Burgess Hill, there was not much to do. But in Brighton, there were alot of places that people could go to for a good night out. There were several clubs, e.g. Coalition, Patterns and many bars. These were along the beach as well which meant there were good views too.