Satellite Navigation Intern Review

I learned a lot during my 13 months at Intel and worked with some very bright and knowledgeable people, but I sometimes struggled to get enough time with my manager to discuss issues or to ask for details on projects. Overall it was an enjoyable placement despite limited social opportunities outside of work.

My colleagues were very welcoming and happy to help if they had the time. I felt that my work was really valued and received recognition for what I had done.

It wasn't always easy to get the information I needed from my manager as he was often too busy which made it difficult to get feedback on my progress. Towards the end of my placement I was able to spend more time working with him and during that time he was very helpful in answering my questions. I wish I could've learned more from him as he is an expert in his field.

The amount of work I had to do varied a throughout the year. I would sometimes find myself working on multiple projects and having to stay late to finish something before a deadline whilst on other occasions, usually in between two projects, I had to go looking for things to do. There were also occasions where the work I was doing felt quite repetitive.

Intel really values its interns and I felt that I was often being treated like a full-time employee. I was in charge of collecting, analysing and presenting my own results to the wider team and usually worked without much oversight. Although this helped me gain in confidence over the year, I did sometimes feel like I was left to my own devices and would've liked a little more feedback or direction.

Some of the skills I acquired during the year, especially in programming, will be very useful for the rest of my degree/career. I have also gained other transferable skills such as time management and results presentation. However I feel like I could have acquired more engineering knowledge if I had had more 1:1 time with my colleagues

The office was very relaxed, you could always go talk to others if they were free to ask for help. There were also a couple of organised activities to bring people together.

Overall the internship was well planned out, especially at the very start, but I found that after a while I turned into more of an employee than an intern as the internship focused more on providing results than on acquiring a broad set of skills. I would've liked to have a monthly or quarterly review with my team to see which areas of knowledge I could improve on.

There are a lot on online resources made available by Intel, but you often ended up learning from a book or a website rather than a person. I would have liked to have access to workshops or training days, but as it was a small site it was understandable that these would not be readily available.

There are very little graduate opportunities within the organisation inside the UK. However, when looking for new hires, Intel will select from its pool of past interns first.

There were only three interns and the area didn't have a lot of social opportunities so it was difficult to create an active social scene. I got along with the other students well and we went to the local pubs with the rest of the office on a couple of occasions.

The area I lived in was very cheap compared to other parts of the UK. There weren't many socialising activities on offer around.

With very few young people living in the area, there wasn't much of a nightlife

Most activities organised by Intel were happening at the bigger offices. There were a lot of volunteering opportunities available, but we had to organise our own transportation to the other locations which made it quite difficult to take part. I did however participate in two volunteering events and we also joined the interns at the bigger Swindon site for a final celebration at the end of the placement.