Summer Placement Student Review

by Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl)

This review was submitted over 4 years ago, so some of the information it contains may no longer be relevant.

Rating

2.5/5
  • The Role
    2.5
  • The Company
    2.5
  • The Culture
    2.5

    The Role

  • 1. To what extent did you enjoy your work placement or internship?

    • The task I was set was just a software job - a little dull but an important bit of work. It was a very nice environment to work in and overall I'd say I enjoyed it a lot.

    4/5
  • 2. To what extent did you feel valued by your colleagues?

    • The task I was set was clearly very important to the other members of the team and everyone was very supportive and encouraging: highly valued.

    1/5
  • 3. To what extent were you given support and guidance by management/your supervisor(s)?

    • Plenty of help with admin and settling in, any questions were quickly answered.

    3/5
  • 4. How busy were you on a daily basis?

    • Pretty much perfect balance: enough work to keep me busy but some long testing cycles leaving me time to work on my own projects. The only bad thing was the commute time, particularly when trains were delayed.

    3/5
  • 5. How much responsibility were you given during your placement?

    • Not a lot - I was working by myself on my task and had nobody else to keep an eye on. The task itself was clearly quite important so there was a degree of responsibility implied by being entrusted with it.

    3/5
  • 6. To what extent did/will the skills you developed, and training you received, assist you in your degree studies and beyond?

    • I mostly became more familiar with some of C++'s less frequently used functionality, however there were a few things I picked up from reading papers about the problem that may be very useful in the near future.

    3/5

    The Company

  • 7. What was the general atmosphere in your office?

    • Very relaxed, good fun - whenever anybody came to the end of their placement (year in industry or summer placement) there was a card and present and usually cake and/or chocolate.

    3/5
  • 8. How well organised was the overall work placement or internship set up?

    • Seamless.

    3/5
  • 9. In terms of personal training and development, to what extent did the company or firm invest in you?

    • Not a lot, but that was to be expected - I got the placement on grounds of my existing skills and I had little enough time to complete the task I was assigned without taking time off for training.

    3/5
  • 10. What were the perks on your work placement?

    • Flexi Time

    Subsidised Canteen

    Company Parties/Events

    Working from home
    3/5
  • 11. How appealing are future employment prospects within the organisation?

    • Definitely a good option.

    3/5

    The Culture

  • 12. Was there a good social scene amongst any fellow placement students/colleagues?

    • Reasonable - I was a little cut off as I was staying with a friend quite a long way away but we went out for lunch a couple of times and for a drink some evenings.

    3/5
  • 13. What was the cost of living and socialising in the area you worked in?

    • Reasonable.

    3/5
  • 14. What was the Nightlife like in the area you worked?

    • A few bars, possibly a couple of clubs but I was mostly too tired to check thoroughly.

    3/5
  • 15. Were there many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work?

    • Not really - my attention was focused on my assigned task while at work and my long commute made many activites unavailable. The cycling club was very welcoming though.

    3/5
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Details

Internship (1 Month+)

Computer Science

South East

October 2013

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