Intern Review

I enjoyed it a lot. I was amazed at how much I learned in these 8 weeks and how much of an emphasis there was on continual learning. The atmosphere was relaxed and the team was always on hand to help. It could've been improved by a more active social scene.

Pretty much every question or problem that I had, my supervisor was on hand to help and provide a solution, even if it meant spending a large chunk of time explaining something to me, or even just helping me google the solution for me. I felt that if I ever got stuck there would always be someone to help me through it.

I was reasonably busy each day. Since I was working on a continuous project the whole time, I always had something to do. But it also meant that if I arrived in the office an hour late, it was fine, as long as I got the work done or stayed in the office a bit longer at the end of the day. Nearer the end of the internship I realised I was a bit behind on work and then I had to work a bit longer each day, but nothing unmanageable.

I was given primary control over the project that I was working on, in that the progress of the project was solely reliant on me (whether or not the project I was working on added any value to the company is another question!) It was suggested to me that I look at a specific software that no one else had really used and so I had to do some independent research on this and give a presentation on it to the team. This made me feel like I had real responsibility since pretty much the whole project relied on this software and I was the "expert" on it.

I feel like I've learned a lot at this internship. It has been very surprising how much I've learned in the past 8 weeks. The programming skills that I have learned will definitely be of use to me in the future as I plan to get a job that has a significant programming element to it. This internship has definitely given me a strong base to which to begin.

The atmosphere was nice and relaxed. Maybe it could've done with some more team activities, even having lunch as a group or something. Usually members of my team would just slip out and have lunch by themselves. There were occasionally informal chats in the office about whatever came to mind which was nice.

The internship was very well organised. HR gave me all the details I needed well in advance and gave me contact numbers of my manager and the other intern that was working with me so that I could contact them if I had any questions. Welcome drinks, leaving drinks, social events and the intern week were all organised well in advance which gave me time to prepare my schedule around that.

I definitely feel the company spent a lot of time and effort training me to have the required technical skills for the task. They gave me plenty of time to learn the basics of programming and to get up to speed with the specific project area I was working on. There were several meetings held to explain to me what the team does and what the product they're working on does.

The type of work and the learning culture of the office are appealing. The relaxed atmosphere makes it a very comfortable place to work. But I feel the salary (at least the intern salary) could be improved. It can be understood that this may be typical of a job in this industry and at this level, but given the options available to a student with this set of skills, the company would be a lot more appealing if its salary was a bit higher.

The office I was working at is relatively small with only around 20 people in the office. So I understand there was limited scope for a bustling social scene. But again, there could be more group lunches, group drinks or other social events. Given there were only 2 interns in the office, I understand that my comments are probably not very useful.

The accommodation the company organised for me was cheap enough, cheaper than any accommodation I could've got myself. It didn't take up a large chunk of my salary. There weren't that many opportunities for socialising with the office, but the times we did, the prices were pretty standard. Also the fact that any traveling done was by bike, that saved a lot of money.