Intern Review

I found the internship to be a good experience overall, including a number of positive aspects with a few drawbacks. I was given interesting and challenging tasks, and was well supported by my team. There were many opportunities to learn about the range of work at the company, and interns felt well integrated into the company structure. I didn't find the enviromnment particularly social however, and had trouble getting to know interns and other colleagues.

I felt well valued by colleagues, especially by my small team, which was very encouraging especially in the first few weeks. Everyone was happy to make time to answer questions, and my input into the direction of my project was respected and considered. I also felt able to engage with colleagues from the wider team where appropriate.

I was very well supported in my project by my supervisor and the small team mnagement. I was given help where required but also given time and space to work out what I could on my own. I felt less supported in the experience of joining and integrating with my first company, but I was able to find my feet after a couple of weeks.

I was given a good level of work, splitting up the overall project into tasks which generally took between a few hours and a few days. I was rarely without something to do as I could easily feed back to my supervisor after completing a task and decide on the next course of action.

I was given an appropriate amount of responsibility, so while I have rated this 5/10 I feel that this was the correct level. I felt primarily responsible for my project, and felt that I had responsibility both for the work I completed for it and to some extent the direction it took.

I think that the general experience of working within a small team, within a productivity framework and a chain of command, will be useful both for the rest of the degree and hopefully in future employment. Some of the technical skills I developed should also be applicable in the future, although some were specific to the work and software framework.

I think the major drawback for me was that the office was very quiet, with relatively little interaction, whether work related or personal. It was not unusual for the 40-50 people space to be silent. This was especially noticable at lunchtime, where people tended to eat alone and avoid conversation, which became quite depressing at times.

The intership was pretty well organised, with experience from previous years clearly showing. The intern projects had been suggested throughout the year and were clearly well integrated into the work framework as many more were suggested than there were interns, leading to interesting research, and there was a clear end goal of the intern presentations at the end. Organising a meal or social event for interns would have been nice within the first week or so.

The company offered a number of training opportunities, which tended to be run by staff for staff on a reasonably informal, drop in drop out basis. These were mostly interesting, and sometimes relevant either to my current work or for likely future work. I was given minimal training in the language and framework required for my internship however, more of which would have been helpful.

There is a really broad range of work within the company, so while I would be hesitant to apply for a job in the same field I was working in, there were a number of interesting projects being worked on by teams at the time, and likely more in the future which I would consider. The company environment would require consideration, but the field is fascinating and worthwhile so the pros would probably outweigh the cons.

As previously mentioned, I found it hard to get to know other interns and colleagues, partially because of the environment and lack of intern events. I did attend the work summer party which was quite good fun, and there was an opportunity to do a company relay, but I didn't spend any time outside of work with colleagues aside from one or two brief outings with the team.