Intern Content Scientist Review

Being at Sparx was very enjoyable. I looked forward going to work every morning! There were lots of arcade games (table tennis, foosball, snooker) and facilities (gym, piano etc.) that made office hours much more fun.

I was given full responsibility and treated as equals. The interns have full permission to access and edit the database, book meeting rooms and use company resources. My work was valued by my supervisor the company and will probably be used in schools!

I could ask for help any time, but usually I feel like I should try to figure things out myself first. They are usually quite glad to help out.

Work was not stressful at all. My group project didn't have a very rushed deadline so I took quite a relaxed approach at it. I was also given an individual project which I managed to work through at a comfortable pace. Plus there were lots of tea breaks throughout office hours.

I actually held my own meeting with the data scientist/school supervisor, two Teach First interns and two school teachers who were involved with the Sparx app. I booked my own meeting, scheduled and invited them using Microsoft Outlook. I feel like I was running the show! However for my content project, I am mostly supervised by the team leader so that I wouldn't corrupt the database.

I got really familiar with using the programming language R during my internship. But more generally, I learned how to work with people, especially in situations when there is a disagreement. I learned not to reject criticism but try to understand the problem from their point of view. Instead of taking their dissatisfaction personally, I just jotted down some notes and moved onto the next point. (They eventually liked my idea :) )

The atmosphere was generally very relaxed. People chat all the time, watched tennis when Wimbledon was happening, shared birthday cakes and so on.

At the start, there was a lot of sitting around doing nothing because responsibilities were not given to us yet, but when we were split into teams and given our own data project, things were quite organised. The database still needs a lot of organising work to do though.

I felt they dedicated a lot of resources to foster our intellectual growth. We were given a variety of training sessions, such as making videos and using R, and even learning how to use a mac on the first day.

I am very, very looking forward to work with Sparx, but I will only hear from them next Monday. My colleagues were very satisfied with my performance and I would contribute to the company in a very positive way.

Yes, we live in the same accommodation and we take turns to cook / wash dishes. However we don't do much together during the weekends as people go off separately to see their friends.

Exeter is fairly reasonably-priced. Our accomodation was provided for free!

I don't know, but just outside of our accommodation there's a nightclub called Arena which plays heavy music from time to time, which is just as distracting as the seagulls.

Yes, there were frequent company outings - e.g. kayaking, hiking in dartmoor, barbacue at Exmouth.