Intern Review

I greatly enjoyed this internship. I found the recruitment process quite good and was happy with the campus recruitment team. Maybe there were a little too many pre-internship tasks and some were repeated. Onboarding was great with two days spent in the central London office before starting in Dublin. There was a lot of compliance training in the first few days but after that it was very enjoyable.

I felt quite valued as I was part of a small team so had the opportunity to make a big impact. I felt like my feedback was valued and there were times where I had discussions with my manager on how we could approach a particular problem. It felt great to have my opinion taken seriously.

We had daily meetings and all pull requests are reviewed so you are kept well on track. My manager was very approachable and I never felt like I couldn't ask them for help or clarity on what I was doing. Likewise the other team members were all very friendly and willing to offer help.

I was kept reasonably busy although there were a few periods where there was little to do and I was left waiting on updates. I was supposed to have a separate side project to work on by myself but due to a number of things all falling through I was left without the project. If the project had materialised then I could have been kept as busy as I wanted so it was just unfortunate that it wasn't able to come together.

I was given as much responsibility as the full time team members. The code and features that I worked on went into production for a tool that affected thousands of employees in the company. When it came to deploying I was brought into the testing process and at times trusted to test some of the most important new features.

I feel like I've gained invaluable experience of working in a professional software development team. Even though it was a short term internship, I expect the experience to really stand to me when it comes to future employment and a lot of what I learned should help me with my degree as well.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the atmosphere of the office. It was very relaxed and friendly, everyone was pleasant to deal with. Even at times of most activity like just before a deployment, I never felt too overwhelmed and there was no expectation to work very long hours. It was also easy to take time away from your desk if you wanted a break. Mostly, you were trusted to be responsible and put in the hours that were expected of you without having to go too overboard either.

It was quite well organised. There was a lot of pre-internship tasks to complete and some of these seemed to be repeated. The induction in London was fantastic and flights and accommodation were taken care of. One mark against would be that our bank details weren't properly processed so we had to wait 6 weeks for the first paycheck. And secondly, the side project that I was supposed to get ended up not going ahead.

The amount of training you do is more or less up to yourself. There are many training courses available through Pluralsight and in my case they would have covered everything that I was using. Having had prior experience in the technologies I was using, I ended up not using the resources very much.

I would definitely like to return to work at J.P. Morgan. Working there is a pleasure and there were very few days over the summer where things got too tough. You feel valued at the company and senior management are very willing to talk with you. Even as an intern you felt like an equal.

We had a smaller intern group so we had lunch together most days. We had some organised nights with people from the office out over the course of the internship. There were a few other impromptu occasions where we went out with colleagues after work. There's definitely opportunity for socialising.

Cost of living is quite high, in Dublin and specifically in the area around the office. Lunch is expensive almost anywhere you go and pubs are the same. It would have been a big plus if the restaurant in the office was subsidised a bit to make up for the shortage of other options.

There are a few nice pubs around the office. Dublin is small so you can pretty much go anywhere you want if you go into town. Getting into town could be easier as the transport around the office is a bit limited. You need to walk for a little bit before you can get a tram or train.

Not a huge amount of opportunities. We had a running club which was nice. Some people in the office are also planning to do Hell and Back which we were invited to. We also got to do a day's volunteering in a camp for sick children and I understand that that is regular thing that J.P. Morgan do.