Support Engineer Review

The job was challenging but I learnt a lot of new skills and that was valuable to me. The project I was working was good for me as it took my entire intership to finish it and was very enjoyable to complete. I'd be more than happy to work for Metaswitch again doing another project.

I felt very valued. Every morning I'd walk in and say good morning and others would do the same. There's a good team spirit at Metaswitch and everybody is quite close knit. As a result it was a nice experience walking into an environment like this and I enjoyed mixing with the other workers.

My manager (who was also my mentor) was very helpful. Whenever I had any problems or queries he would always be around to help me out (unless of course he was on the phone which is fair enough). Before starting any work I was given enough guidance to learn what I needed to and so a lot of the time I could complete a good portion of the work without too much guidance.

I was busy but I was not overworked. I get in to work just before 9 and finish just after half 5 but I would take slightly longer lunch breaks. I still had enough time to complete all the work I needed to however and Metaswitch as a company are quite flexible with what hours you work (as long as you get the work done is all that matters!).

Initially, the project I was working on didn't have great importance but as time went on the importance of the project grew and the deadline of it was brought forward, this did cause some worries whether an intern would finish the project but I felt that I was trusted with this task and I hope I have delivered something to Metaswitchs' standards.

I think a lot of the skills I learnt aren't directly applicable to my studies but are more core skills which I would have needed when I work in a full time job. Because of this I feel some of the skills I've gained at Metaswitch complement the skills I have gained through my studes and are in some sense more valuable as they are not as easily attainable.

The atmosphere is like a standard office, lots of people tapping away at the keyboard. Everybody gets on with their work, employees do talk to each other every now and then but now much else goes on. I wouldn't say it's dull as we all have work to do but there could be a bit more liveliness to be fair.

Initially the project didn't really have a direction. As a result the direction of the project kept changing and evolving. This isn't particularly a bad thing, in fact it was quite good as I got a say in where the project went and had an impact on it's overall design and structure.

I didn't need any specific training for the job, I needed an initial 'rampup' which was time dedicated at the beginning of my internship to learning new skills and gaining experience with new technologies (e.g. I had to learn how to code in Python which was completely new to me). I learnt this using python.org. I was told exactly what skills I would need to become accustomed to using at the beginning of my internship so I knew what I was getting myself into.

Very appealing, the internship pay was very good (in my opinion). Also movement inside the company is very flexible, people can move between departments very easily so there can be a great variation in work if people want that. I personally would be happy to work for Metaswitch full time should they offer me a job sometime in the future.

Yes there was. Although all the interns were from different background and different universities we all got on very well as we're all quite like minded people. I didn't personally work with them as we were all in different departments but it was good to meet them during lunches and for the morale event (we went to an escape room).

I personally live in the area, so living costs for me was quite low. However as I worked in the area I found that the cost of lunch everyday was relatively low, the canteen had good food every day always under £5 and the local Tesco Express (1 min walk from the office) was even cheaper.

Not sure, didn't really participate in it and I don't think many of the other interns did either. There are quite a few pubs around however and a some clubs but didn't go to any so can't comment. The local pubs however are reasonable in cost however and beers aren't too expensive.

There was an intern morale trip to ClueQuest (an escape room sort of thing), that was good fun, especially as we got to know each other better. Also there was an interns vs new starters rounders tournament and also a Fish and Chips dinner (free of charge) for the interns. In terms of the people you work with there are weekly activities that take place e.g. one week I joined in to play basketball, another week there was badminton etc.