Engineering Intern Review

It's been great! Everyone's very friendly and helpful, and there are always people offering ways to get involved.

Right off the bat, my manager asked me what I wanted to get out of my internship and connected me with people and projects that fit those ambitions and provided me with some great experiences to take away.

In my particular role, it varied a lot. This is due to relying on demand from customers, so sometimes my team would be swamped, and other times there was very little to do.

A reasonable amount of responsibility. Everything I did was ultimately checked by a full-time employee, but I was trusted with pursuing projects without being constantly supervised.

I've picked up a wide variety of skills during my time here, from the 'hard' experience of working with the tools in the environments I expect to be in after I graduate, to the 'soft' skills of team work and communication. Intel also offers a range of optional courses that you can take while at work, and is very supportive in that regard.

In the lab where I worked, the atmosphere was quite relaxed and everyone on my team was very friendly. The worst thing about it was probably the fact that there are no windows in the lab, and during the winter the only sunlight you see is at lunch time.

Intel has a long running intern program, so most of the kinks are well worked out. The Internship lasts 13 months, so your first month you're mentored by the previous intern, and in your last month you mentor your replacement. The only bad thing really was how late the interviews were. By the time I got an interview, most of my peers at university already had placements.

I'd like to come back to Intel, but I don't know how likely it is that I'd be able to return. New positions don't open all that often.

There are Intern Committees for Sports and Social, Publishing, and Charity. There were a few noteworthy events, most recently a trip to Amsterdam, but a lot of the time it seemed very difficult to get people to socialise outside of work. It's really down to your individual year group though.

It was pretty reasonable. Cheaper than where my university is anyway.

It was ok. I'm not really a night-life kind of person.

I've been involved in a fair amount of projects outside of work (some of which took place during work hours). These have included a volunteering day where 100 employees took part to clear brambles from a forest trail, advocating STEM subjects with the Bloodhound project at various venues, and later this year I'll be part of the Dragon Boat team at the 2014 Corporate Games.