Summer Technology Analyst Review

It was a great experience, which has definitely helped me improve upon the things we had learned at the University and at the same time it helped me realise how important the courses we took at the University were. I enjoyed the fact that here you are doing continuous work and that your work counts and will be used in the future. Additionally, I believe that you get enough supervision and are welcomed into the teams.

At first I was obviously doing basic things that were mainly to assess whether I can get things done or not and they were mainly to ease me in. However, by the middle of the internship I felt like I was well integrated into my team and it was greatly stressed how important and valuable the work I was doing was.

Even though my manager was busy at times, he would always try and find time where to organise a nice lengthy session to discuss anything I was facing problems with or anything I wanted feedback on, and this was pretty much every other day and therefore I think I had a lot of support and feedback at all times.

Since we incorporated agile software practices, we had sprints often and therefore we would always assign tasks to ourselves that would fulfil that sprint. That would therefore ensure that we would always have work to concentrate, which was a good thing for me because it made me motivated and at the same time it felt like I am doing great progress on my tasks.

I was given basic tasks at the beginning but as my internship progressed, I was given better and more rewarding tasks, which in turn meant that I was responsible for quite important parts. However, at the same time I never felt under pressure and that me missing a deadline would bring down calamity. It is also largely up to the individual to make sure they are getting enough, but not too much, responsibility to themselves by deciding which tasks to do.

I have learned a lot of new technologies that I had not encountered before and at the same time I learned a lot of soft skills that you do not really get from University. I believe that being part of such a big diverse company helps with that a lot, since you have to do a lot of communication with people that might not be in the exactly the same spot as you are.

It seemed like a generic computing science environment, where most people were coding away or engaging in phone calls, which has been what I had anticipated and it meets my expectations. As for the general mood, it seemed like everyone was friendly and you could hear friendly chatter from all over the place, when people weren't busy.

The recruitment team did an amazing work, with regular updates and we were given every chance to communicate with them and ask questions. I believe they provided an excellent view of what the work entails and what the graduate position would be like if we succeed in our internship. We had a good balance of socials and events that were organised well and helped us meet other interns. I believe that the aspect of allowing us to network early on was absolutely great - many of the interns are now my off-site friends.

I believe we got a very good amount of training for whichever technologies and business terms we had to encounter. I believe the training and knowledge transfers were very well done by our managers. However, I found that the business training could have been done a bit better and in-person rather than the online trainings that they had. It would definitely have helped a lot more. However, the online training was very well created.

They are very appealing due to the fact that there are many technologies around in the company and there is pretty much a perfect team for anyone. It is very important, when applying, to clearly specify what your interests and skills are so that you are able to join a team and technology you enjoy working with.

We had regular social meetings and also team lunches and dinners to get to know what everyone is up to and at the same time get to know each other better. However, no one was forced to attend them and therefore it allows people to be flexible. I believe most people at work were very similarly minded and therefore it allowed for easy communication and a broad range of topics to be brought up.

Glasgow is a lot cheaper to live in than some other cities and therefore it allowed to stay somewhere very close to the office. Some people would prefer a busier city due to more activities and bigger social spectrum, however, I thought it was perfect in the sense that it wasn't too busy but at the same time there is enough to do without getting bored.

In the city centre there are a lot of night clubs and pubs, so that they are not too crowded and can be gone to with friends or co-workers. Therefore there is enough nightlife for anyone wishing these activities and at the same time there are a lot of quieter areas for a nice dining experience or a relaxing drink.

There are a lot of activities to do in Glasgow and they apply to a broad spectrum of people. There are a lot of sports clubs that you can join, sports halls and gyms for recreational activities and also gaming cafes and shops for people who like anime or gaming. In that sense I think there is something for everyone.