R&D Intern Review

The work I was doing mostly lines up well with my interests and so I enjoyed it. It was however a little slow to start off.

Generally speaking, I felt welcome to be there and like I was valued as having something to offer to ARM weather it be now or in the future.

I could always ask my manager about anything (work related) and got the answers and knowledge I needed quickly. There were even weekly one to one sessions for anything that warranted a lengthy discussion.

At first I didn't have much to do as I was working on a project in its early stages but some interesting work came along to keep me busy about half way through.

When I had things to do I was trusted to get on with them and could do so without feeling like I was under close watch.

I have gained some skills since starting my internship, some of them are quite specific to this job while others are more general skills or experiences. They are all skills and knowledge worth having.

The atmosphere met my expectations for what such an office would be like.

It was planned fairly well, some small things could have gone better. User accounts were mostly set up but not quite, this was sorted soon after I got there however. There was also a desk change soon after I got there, this could have been sorted before I got there. With some more forward planning perhaps I could have been more thoroughly informed about accommodation arrangements so that I would avoid having to move elsewhere for the last week. Other than these relatively small niggles (which are to be expected), everything was fine.

The skills that I didn't have before I arrived were skills that could be learned on the job. For this reason, training and development came in the form of explanations and answers to questions directly from my manager. He was more than willing to spend parts of his time giving me the answers and explanations I needed.

I have been told that there is already interest in inviting me back for another internship next year. I am, however, still unsure if this is something I will want to do as a job/career.

Personally, I didn't have much contact with other students/interns. I was kept aware of intern-organised events via a mailing list that was set up for this purpose, I just wasn't interested in most of the events. There were some ARM-organised events, I attended two of these and they were both very enjoyable.

The cost of my accommodation was, in my opinion, fairly high. There was a cheap local shop handy which made the cost of food more than acceptable.

I don't know. I'm not much of a night-life person.

There were social events organised by ARM and by other interns. As for work related events, as far as I know, there were none. There is however, a scheme that aims to promote ARM in universities. I was given an opportunity to be part of this but have not yet showed an interest.