Summer Student Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my internship here. The work was rewarding and engaging, and the team was friendly and more than happy to help. The working conditions are very agile and free, allowing me to feel in control and comfortable in my work environment. Being trusted by my colleagues to do difficult work also made this internship enjoyable.

My team was very supportive, providing challenging work that would have real utility while offering a large amount of help and guidance in reached the goal. Colleagues, though busy, were happy to take a few minutes to show me how to do something, and in return were happy to ask me for help.

My line manager was very attentive without being overbearing. He was always available when needed, without appearing overbearing or uncertain of my own abilities. Other people who I worked under were also very willing to offer assistance as I needed it, but otherwise were happy to let me get on with it.

Most of the time I've felt as though the amount of work I have is exactly right. Tasks were large enough to be able to be completed at my own pace, and were clearly defined in a way that I always knew how much progress I had made. Towards the end, I did begin to run out of work.

I was put in charge of two major tasks. While they were defined very clearly, the solution was left almost entirely up to me in both cases. This meant I was responsible for ensuring the solution would meet the problem, but also for communicating with my task-setters about its progress as well.

The skills I have developed here will assist my project management skills, my organisation and communication, and my ability to think creatively about solving problems as well. One of the really important skills I have picked up here is the ability to learn quickly about specialist subjects without feeling intimidated.

Our office was focused and hardworking, but managed to maintain a friendly and positive atmosphere. Colleagues felt free to discuss their projects together, which was very useful, and I would consider the people I have worked closely with here to be friends. However, the organisation does have a tendency to lose you in acronyms and technical terms.

The main hurdle was obtaining clearance in time. This is an unfortunate reality of the clearance process, but the time taken was mildly frustrating. Once the clearance came through, the internship was organised well, and I was able to get everything I needed to work effectively in a few days.

The company provides a lot of opportunity for interns to grow and develop. This takes many forms, but the form that I ended up using the most was attending talks given by grad scheme members and using the wealth of relevant literature available to read. The company also apportions a specific amount of hours for training.

DSTL offers a sponsorship scheme for summer students, that can guarantee future summer placements and potentially a job if you're in your final year. There is a small monetary incentive as well, if you go for the sponsorship in your final year, and they encourage you to learn about the grad as well.

Colleagues would occasionally organise social events for other summer students and grads, and the company has a dedicated new starters organisation. Events outside work were few and far between, however, and not many students from my team attended these. This may be due to how spread out people are in terms of where they live.

Pretty cheap to live in, provided you find the right place and don't mind sharing with people you don't know. The drawback of living in the cheaper areas is that you're further from work, and commuting in by train can get expensive. Bars are about average in terms of price.

Nightlife in Portsmouth is like any other student city, with a fair amount of bars and clubs. If you don't live in or near Portsmouth, however, the nightlife is subpar.

There are opportunities to do activities outside of work, however these are dependent on how long you work there for and who you get to know.