Application Developer Review

The training was good, and provided a reasonable insight into the context within which your work fitted - given that I was completely new to banking, I feel that I gained a fair bit of knowledge in this area.

As part of the group of interns, there was a good, respectful atmosphere. Within the actual team I was a part of, there was again a good, supportive atmosphere.

The support and guidance by my manager lacked structure. In some respects, this was good, but in others it made the internship needlessly more stressful. Other support structures, such as being assigned a buddy and mentor, worked well.

I felt I could have completed more than the work assigned, but by not having too much work, I was able to better familiarise myself with the company and the structure.

I think that I was given a good amount of responsibility - in the sense that I wasn't confined to a "dummy" project. The results of my work had a clear place within the larger company, and that was an excellent feeling to have. I also got to present my work to senior people within the firm.

When studying software engineering, it is difficult to envision how it works within the context of a real company. You are given dummy projects, or projects with no context at all beyond learning a particular algorithm, and these are often discarded after you write them. It was good to see how software engineering works "in real life", and this has certainly augmented my understanding of the subject.

The atmosphere was casual, yet professional. While it is obviously within the context of banking applications, given that all the staff are technologists it has the feeling of a technology company rather than a bank.

There were the normal hiccups that occur with organising groups of people, but beyond that it was very well structured. Given that it is a large company, they have the ability to make a good investment in programs such as these, and the result is good.

While there was only a short induction to the company, training was given on the tools needed to perform the job as the project progressed. Short tutorial sessions were setup informally within the team to ensure that everyone (not just interns) had the necessary skills. It always felt very inclusive, and not at all as if we were holding back the team.

This is definitely a company that I would like to work for in the future.

This is another perk of having an internship with a large company - there are more interns! In all, there were around 20 interns, and as a result there was a good social scene.

Glasgow is (relatively) cheap, in comparison to the likes of London.

Again, being Glasgow there is a wide variety of nightlife on offer.

There were different events, such as a camping and jam making (!), which were a good way to meet with other interns outside of work, and do good for charity.