Software Development Intern Review

My placement was extremely varied, I was given the chance to change roles as well as become the lead intern. This allowed me to take part in UK&I committee meetings.

From day 1 was I treated like any other member of staff. I never felt as if I was looked down upon for being an intern or feeling as if I couldn't ask a question. I soon became a key member on site helping arrange site events.

I had three mentors over my year in industry all from varied backgrounds such as Software Development, Project Management and Senior Sales. This helped me gain a better understanding of my next steps.

Work balance was the for me one of the weaknesses of my personal placement. Some weeks I would be crammed with work and others I would practically be checking emails. This was somewhat caused by a reorg and the product I was working on. So don't let this put you off HPE.

From my second week I was working on a project which would be customer facing. A month in I was now completely in charge of this project. Later in my placement I was project managing a team of 3 full time employees. HPE gets you deeply involved in their work and you play a very important role.

Both my technical abilities (coding) and personal skills developed greatly over the year. I was able to switch roles and learn even more about myself and my passions.

The atmosphere here in Bristol was one of my highlights of the placement. It did not feel like an office, everyone got along so well. We were also treated to lots of free food and site activities!

During my first month I was completing online courses to get myself up to speed with the technologies used here on site. I would have liked a little more structure to this, however for our replacement interns we hosted a three day bootcamp to get them all on the same page.

Every month we had 'Hack days' where we could spend the time for personal development or group work. I also took part in three training courses over year, these cost the company £700 per person!!

HPE are known for their great staff retention, I was offered a 12 hour part time contract at the end of my placement. 5/6 of the interns in Bristol were offered this.

I was lucky as I knew someone from my uni with the same placement, so we lived together which meant we were able to go out lots. However the other interns all lived in other places so this was very difficult to arrange nights out etc.

Bristol is an expensive city to live in, however HPE is located in Filton which has cheaper rent. If you are looking for a better social life you'd live in the centre/clifton like we did. Average rent is £450+pp and importantly drink prices are around £3.80-£4.50 a pint.

It's Bristol. If you don't know about the Bristol nightlife you're doing something wrong. It's one of the most famous cities for it's unique and extensive music scenes

Some however due to the location of the office, it was fairly limited.