Software developer Review

The placement was hugely enjoyable. The employees were very friendly and welcoming, and a lot of effort is put in to make sure there are a lot of social things to do, from table tennis, pool, Super Smash bros at lunchtime, to numerous after work pub trips and dinners. We even played volleyball most lunchtimes.

For our project, the team consisted of eight interns, a project manager and a team manager (technical lead). As the project developed, I did feel like fellow interns and both managers valued my input to the project, and took up my suggestions / comments. Despite the interns all working on a single team, I still felt like we were valued by the company, and not simply put to the side.

The first week of the project was completely devoted to training. We were introduced to the various languages and tools we would be using during the project. We both had a number of demonstrations by the team manager which were very useful. Obviously we could ask questions at any point from the technical lead, but we also had a daily meeting in which we could say what was causing us problems and would get suggestions from the group / managers then.

There were always tasks to do, but despite this, the work was not really stressful at any point. For the first several weeks of the project, we worked in pairs on the tasks we were assigned. This shared responsibility and meant we could learn off each other. This was an efficient way to gain familiarity with the tools we were using in the project.

I did not have much responsibility over the project and its direction. This said, I was completely responsible for my working hours. Each morning was the stand-up meeting at which you reported what you had achieved the day before, and stated your objectives for that day. You were then responsible for what you achieved that day.

As a mathematics student, not much of the programming experience is directly relevant to my degree studies (though I do intend to use GIT to manage my fourth year project). The knowledge and skills gained will be very useful for anything related to programming that I do in the future - be it my career or hobbies on the side.

The office atmosphere was awesome. The office has the so-called "Chillout", almost an entire floor of space to relax, with a kitchen, table tennis, pool, table football, two screen rooms (with game consoles) and a music room. A group of us also went to play volleyball in the local park most lunchtimes. I genuinely got the impression that most of the office really enjoy their working at Softwire, and that it is more than just their means of getting paid.

The interns were split into a number of different teams; each team had a manager who was an experienced full time Softwire employee, but was otherwise almost exclusively made up of interns. In my view, this was a really good structure to the internship, since we had similar levels of experience, both programming-wise and professionally.

From my point of view, the entire internship was an investment made by Softwire. Not only do they provide us with competitive salaries, they also assigned employees to be working full time with the interns, and a considerable budget is assigned for socials. In terms of personal training, having an experienced technical lead assigned to each small group of interns had the biggest effect.

I am seriously considering returning to the company in the future. The main reason for this is the general feel and ethos of the company: focusing on the employees by providing interesting programming jobs and by investing money into the social side of the company. This really did feel genuine and has a lasting impression.

A large proportion of the company was involved in the social scene at some point, since there are so many activities going on. The after work pub trips are among the most popular weekly event, but there is a monthly party. My placement coincided with the annual picnic, where the whole office has a half-day of paid holiday to relax in the local park, enjoying a buffet style lunch and playing outdoor games.

I lived 20 minutes walk from the office. This accommodation costed me around £1000 per month. Groceries were between £50 and £100 each week. There were a load of meals out which costed between £10 and £20 each.

I went to the pub and out for dinner. I don't usually go clubbing so can't comment on that scene.

The internship took place in London, so almost every activity is catered for at some cost.