Product Analyst Review

The products that I was working on were exciting and innovative. The work that I did was meaningful and may be used in the future. I was able to try out some of the products that I was working on and this motivated me to work harder. The work that I was given was not easy and tested my technical knowledge but coming out of the internship I that I have developed my computer science knowledge.

I was treated like a colleague and not and intern and was invited to meet senior managers and to division meetings/briefings. In terms of my team, there was limited communication and at points I didn't know what I was doing or what the team was doing. I would have liked to have been integrated into the team a bit more as I feel that I was left out a little from knowing what was going on.

At the start I was told to get on and learn by myself. I was not given any resources to learn off of and just told that if I needed help then I should ask. Later on, once the project started going I was given information but a lot of the time my colleagues were busy and so 'supervising an intern' was less of a priority. In the end I self-teached myself the knowledge I needed to do my work but it would of been easier and nicer to get some assistance from my manager.

I was given a lot of work but at points I had to wait for work to be given to me. As an intern who is only there for 3 months I was understanding that there wasn't a lot that I could do in the given space of time but I felt that my skills were not used to the full extent and that I could of provided a lot more to the team and the product.

I was told that the project I was working on might help get a bid from a customer and so I was under a bit of pressure. But I was never stressing out and never given an time deadlines. My manager never pestered me and I was given the freedom to try out and use my own ideas.

I have developed my technical skills to quite an extent as I had only finished first year when I joined Thales. I have now been taught aspects of Computer Science that I will be using in my fourth year at university. In terms of inter-personal skills, I was not given much of a chance to develop my teamwork and communication skills which was unfortunate.

It was a good working environment, I was given my own desk and my desk neighbours were always friendly and open for a chat. The office has a break out area where you can speak to fellow colleagues in a less formal manner. The senior managers are always close which can be a good thing if you need to speak to them. You get to know everyone on the office floor and most people are always friendly. Although there were some people that didn't like the sight of a student intern.

At the start everything was ready for me and there was no problems. Around midway through technical problems arose and everything seemed to be a delayed and my work had to be stopped as I waited for the issues to be solved. I never heard from the Emerging Talent team throughout the internship to find out about my progress which would have been nice but I did get to meet with senior managers (Although this was organised by the company HR team not Emerging Talent).

I was not provided with any personal training or development. I was given a mentor who I could speak to and ask for help (Who was very helpful) but in terms of courses or books to read from then I was given nothing. I had to do my own research and teaching via the internet. The documentation on the project I was working on was poor and so I had to analyse and figure out myself a lot of the time what to do next.

You are given a route that you can go through at Thales either a technical or managerial route. Managers hold meetings throughout the year to discuss this career path and set goals and aims that you should aim to complete so you could get the deserved promotions and payrises. I was given any of this as I was only here for 3 months.

We were given the contact details of other students and we would meet up occasionally at lunchtime or after work. There was also alot of graduates and they were always happy to help. When you join Thales you get given a buddy which helps you settle in and meet other interns and graduates also.

I was living with my parents and commuting around 45 minutes each way to the internship, so I didn't really experience cost of living in the area, but from what I heard it was quite good and there was subsidised food at the work site. It's pretty standard I guess. I have little to compare with since I worked in the same city I live.

I did not experience this as I was living with my parents and commuting around 45 minutes each way to the internship, so I didn't really experience it. I did not hear either good or bad reports of it from my colleagues. However With Manchester only ten minutes away there's pretty much everything you could want close-by.

Highlight was probably the go-karting trip organised by one of the graduates with about 40 people from the office getting involved. There were many things organised and I received information about these via e-mail. I felt most of these might be for full-time employees and was not so keen to find out more myself.