Technology Summer Intern Review

The support received has been great despite the fact that the internship was remote. Everyone was just as motivated to do their best, which helped everyone stay positive for the entire time. The campus team also tried their best to give us the best experience possible by organising everything from panel sessions, workshops, casual events and events that managed to give us a taste of what life is actually like at American Express. Also hearing from people working in different parts of the company was indeed interested and allowed us to gain a better understanding about the company's impact.

Within the team of interns I have worked in I always got the feeling that I was indeed listened to and I was able to share my opinion with others without fear, as we were after all delivering the project together and were all responsible for how well it was doing. We were encouraged to give feedback to all the sessions we attended, both by rating the experience and by adding any additional comments if necessary, in order for them to get a better understanding of how it was received by everyone and we also had a saying when deciding what certain sessions were going to be about.

The senior engineers, together with the grads that were helping us with our project were always there in case we needed them or if we were stuck, and were ready to jump in at any time. When we wanted to do more than the goal we were aiming to achieve by the end of the second sprint they encouraged us through the process and even scheduled sessions with other engineers who were more experienced with the frameworks we were going to use in order to gain as much insight as we could in the short time frame. Also, the company gave us access to Pluralsight which proved to be a valuable tool when we were getting started in order to familiarise ourselves with the technologies.

As I am studying Computer Science at university and am constantly working on projects, I am confident that all the skills I developed while working at American Express will assist me in delivering better for every milestone or piece of coursework, while also giving me an insight of how different working in a company is to actually working on a university project. Also, talking to people who use the frameworks I was using for my project turned out to be an incredibly valuable experience as their insight will help me tackle certain things faster in case I am faced with them again.

The virtual experience was indeed an immersive one, with various events almost every day, together with buddy meetings (weekly chats with fellow interns and grads). The way the events were scheduled did not disrupt our work at all; instead, I found them as a nice way to take your mind off of the project for around an hour, to then go back motivated and ready to start working again. Also, it allowed for us to also manage our time according to our needs and to how we work better.

Starting with the Campus Team, everyone was incredibly friendly and ready to help us at any point in the day, or to answer our questions no matter the topic. The senior engineers were supportive of us throughout every milestone and the entire atmosphere was truly positive no matter how challenging certain tasks were. Everyone was always enthusiastic to start the day and give their best, which is how I think every work environment should be.

We were given access to Pluralsight a couple of weeks before the starting date, and we were able to access the courses on there both before and also during the internship. Also, there were many sessions during our time at American Express that were aimed to give us a better understanding of certain topics (kafka, splunk, git, spring boot, react etc.) where we had the chance to also ask questions while, for some of them, to work on something related while attending the session.

The weekly buddy meetings allowed us to chat with people working is various parts of the company while also occupying different positions (grads, VPs, inters from the other locations) where we learnt how life is for them and what their every day is like at the company. We had the opportunity to attend meetings with the CEO as well, which gave us the feeling that we were indeed a part of the company and what it is like when everyone else watches it at the same time. In short, after my short experience in the company I have a clear picture in my mind of what it is like to have a full time role with the company.

All the events we attended and all the people we talked to seemed to share the same values (the "Blue Box Values") of the company, which is a great way to make yourself feel like you're part of something bigger than yourself. This way, as an intern here, I understood that these values do bring everyone together. The company culture is therefore focused on creating valuable bonds between individuals, and learning from everyone else around you.

As my previous work experience was from a smaller 20-people company, American Express taught me about how it is to work in a much more diverse environment. It also managed to prove to me that this is the environment in which I strive. Also the project I worked on opened my eyes in terms of what to look for in the future as fields in which I am interested in, and most importantly it taught me not to be afraid of new challenges.

American Express managed to promptly act when everyone was starting to work remotely due to the pandemic. They did not cancel the internship, but rethought the entire process, and made sure that it would not affect us in any way, not even when it came to the pay. They also covered the cost of sending us the equipment needed in order to work remotely, together with the one for returning, so this change did not affect us in any way.

There were weekly buddy meetings where I was networking with two people from the graduate programme and two fellow interns. During these meetings I had the chance to network with other interns working in America, and various other employees. Also, we had weekly meetings with other interns that would share their experiences in order to gain that sense of a community (even if it was remotely). Also the events encouraged us to mix with people outside of our team.

The networking opportunities managed to overcome the obstacle of doing everything remotely. We had various social events that contributed to that as well (such as pub quizzes, pictionary sessions, cocktail/mocktail classes etc.), where we interacted with other people. All these opportunities proved to be much better than what most of us were expecting, while also being designed in such a way to encourage each one of us to participate and interact with the people attending as much as possible.

Everyone in the company was very open about everything they were doing, related to their work like and even the one outside of work. We had the chance to also see how something people did outside of work (such as getting different accreditations) allowed them to share their knowledge with others, not only when it came to something related to what we were working on. A great example of this would be the yoga sessions that couldn't have happened otherwise.

In my opinion the team at American Express managed the current situation in the best way possible, which encourages me to recommend it to anyone willing to apply. It was a truly immersive experience that did not feel lonely at any point. In fact, for me, it was the opposite of that. Thanks to all the events and all the people I worked or talked to while working here I had the feeling that I was part of the company, working alongside them throughout the time I was here.