Software Engineering Intern Review

Overall I really enjoyed the internship, and it definitely exceeded my expectations. The experience I've gained during my internship has given me a fantastic insight into the world of work and really helped me decide upon my future career path. This is the first internship I've done so it's difficult to directly compare it to others, but it totally met my expectations and I felt like it was a very valuable experience I'd happily do again.

I felt part of the team from really early on in the internship - I was definitely seen as an equal and not 'just an intern' by my team. I always felt like the contributions to our work I made was valued and I was given constructive and helpful feedback. Whenever I had the opportunity to work directly with my colleagues I felt like my contributions and opinions were well received and my opinions were taken on board.

My manager contacted me before the internship started to answer any questions or concerns I had, which was really helpful. Once the internship started I was assigned a mentor and buddy within my team, who were always willing to answer questions, help me with problems, and suggest way that I could stretch myself and improve my work. There was never really anytime during the internship that I felt like I was totally on my own.

Most days I had a reasonable amount of work to do. There were a few times when I was blocked on tasks and so didn't have much to do, and a few times when I was very busy, but on the whole it was a good balance. My team and manager were always willing to find me other interesting work to do, and I always felt like the work I was doing was actually 'real' and not just made up for me.

I was given as much responsibility as any other employee, wasn't given any more oversight than any other employee, and I had the freedom to approach my work any way that I chose. During my internship I was able to do a wide range of real work that, had I not been on that team, somebody else would have done. My main piece of work was a project assigned solely to me. Essentially, I wasn't seen as an intern at all and I really appreciated that.

I was able to develop a wide range of skills that I think will be useful in the rest of my degree and in future work. Of course some time I was spent on things specific to Capital One (although would probably still be pretty applicable to other companies), however generally the skills I've developed are very generally applicable. I was also given the opportunity to work towards professional certifications paid for by Capital One.

Even remotely I got the sense that Capital One is a very fun company. I do feel like due to remote working I've missed out on a lot of the fun that would usually happen as part of an in-person internship, but the programme team did a great job of putting on a whole series of fun events to try and replicate it. The corporate culture of Capital One (outside of the internship scheme) is equally fun, I always felt like I could have a laugh with my colleagues.

I was definitely prepared to make some allowances considering that this was the first time the internship had been run remotely, but it was fantastically organised. The first week's onboarding was very clearly scheduled and I always felt like I knew why I was attending sessions. Later on, the scheduling sometimes became a bit less organised, with invites for some events only going out at fairly short notice, but this didn't really cause any issues as my schedule was very flexible.

We were given a huge amount of training at the beginning of the internship, including hours of technical training and soft skills training given by internal and external speakers. We had access to a huge range of both internal and external training courses we were able to, and I had the opportunity to have professional qualifications paid for by the company. We were told right from the beginning this was an important part of the internship so I wasn't worried about this taking up time instead of work.

Capital One has a graduate scheme which seems very appealing, and the internship has the possibility of an offer for this scheme at the end of it. On this grad scheme, there's a very clearly defined path to show us a wide range of the company. I feel like the internship has given me a good enough look at the company that I know I'd really enjoy a career there and if given that opportunity I'd absolutely take it.

Having to work from home of course reduced the possibility of an in-person social scene but the internship programme team put on a great programme of activities just for interns, and the wider company had all kinds of activities at various levels that I enjoyed taking part in. From weekly quizzes between different areas of the company, to an intern Zoom murder mystery, to an escape room, I always felt like there was a good amount of fun activities that helped me get to know people across the company.

As I was working from home I didn't have to commute or get different accommodation, and I was able to really easily move during my internship too.

This is less applicable because of everyone working from home, but the activities that took place instead were all very good.