Program Manager Review

The internship was very enjoyable. The workplace balanced the importance of having fun at work and the seriousness that comes with working for a large company very well.

I was treated as a full time employee. They gave me an equal responsibility and expected the same from me as of everyone else. This was NOT an internship spent making coffee for managers.

Do not expect anyone to hold your hand. This internship is about helping you grow to be mature enough to sustain a full time job. Obviously they help at the start and help you get up to speed on the company internals etc. but remember they have jobs themselves. They are definitely not their as your babysitter.

Sadly the technical work was not as intense or mentally taxing as I had hoped. This meant that quite often I was able to speed through the work faster than they expected. Although this is not a negative point entirely as it allowed me the time to work on my own skills such as learning other programming languages and educating myself on the details of networks and such.

As I said earlier I was treated as a full time employee. They gave me full on projects and difficult tasks that required many skills. In no way was I considered inferior and given basic tasks.

This placement year definitely helped me develop many skills. It is not just the programming skills etc that help with my Computer Science degree but also working a 9-5 (or more) job requires much more perseverance and mental endurance than a degree. So there are many life skills that I was also able to take away with me this year.

The office was very relaxed and stress free which actually helped with my work. It meant more thought went into the work creating higher quality solutions than rapid poor ones.

The internship was extremely well organized and managed by a really great team of people.

Very heavily. I had the option of taking many tests to achieve a multitude of qualifications for free. They also were very happy for me to develop the skills I wanted to develop in my free time.

Sadly there aren't any graduate jobs that are heavily computer science oriented. They rely more on the customer technology help side of things. Although there is a slim opportunity to come back as a contractor.

This is very much up to you. There are many people willing to go out for drinks etc after work although I wouldn't say that it was a prominent part of the work culture. Although if you are willing to be the catalyst then there can be.

London was extremely expensive to live and socialize within.

London's nightlife is incredible. There is something for everyone.

Yes, if you are willing to look!