This review was submitted over 4 years ago, so some of the information it contains may no longer be relevant.
Rating
-
The Role
-
The Company
-
The Culture
- 1. To what extent did you enjoy your work placement or internship?
- 2. To what extent did you feel valued by your colleagues?
- 3. To what extent were you given support and guidance by management/your supervisor(s)?
- 4. How busy were you on a daily basis?
- 5. How much responsibility were you given during your placement?
- 6. To what extent did/will the skills you developed, and training you received, assist you in your degree studies and beyond?
- 7. What was the general atmosphere in your office?
- 8. How well organised was the overall work placement or internship set up?
- 9. In terms of personal training and development, to what extent did the company or firm invest in you?
- 10. What were the perks on your work placement?
- 11. How appealing are future employment prospects within the organisation?
- 12. Was there a good social scene amongst any fellow placement students/colleagues?
- 13. What was the cost of living and socialising in the area you worked in?
- 14. What was the Nightlife like in the area you worked?
- 15. Were there many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work?
The Role
My placement gave me the opportunity to receive an invaluable amount of real world experience straight from day 1. I learned a multitude of technologies such as Terraform, Ansible, Amazon Web Services (Lambda, EC2, Route53, etc), Cucumber, Python and Go while also improving my pre-existing skills in Java, JavaScript, SQL and Linux. During my placement I also received training and the chance to take the AWS Developer Associate, SysOps and Architect exams.
I joined my team with a particular set of skills that filled a programming experience void, within the first few months i was leading the company into serverless technology and was the go-to-guy for questions related to AWS Lambda. One of my favourite things about Cognito IQ is that event though I was an intern, I always felt part of the team and that my opinions and suggestions were taken on board and received through all levels of the company (team members, managers, CTO).
No matter whether it was your manager or team member, there was always space for a quick chat if you needed some assistance on something.
Very busy.
A lot, I lead a Python course for my colleagues, gave a presentation about Serverless technology and along with my team ran the infrastructure for companies worth millions while also fixing critical issues that occurred.
During this placement I learned /developed: - My Communication Skills - Terraform - Ansible - Cloud Technologies (AWS) - I am now a certified Developer - Serverless Technologies - Networking - Java Testing - Python
The Company
The atmosphere was generally happy and light-hearted, it was literally impossible to go a single day without hearing someone laughing and I genuinely enjoyed going to work.
The initial introduction could have been better, as I once said to our HR team: "Joining the company was like being placed within the centre of a maze with no map.". Initially it wasn't too clear what each team did and how they joined together. It took a while to be able to understand how all the parts of the company fit together and to have a basic understanding of the product that we actually build.
The company was excellent when it came to investing in my skills, they provided me with training (~£50) and paid for me to take the 3 AWS Associate Exams (~£340).
Subsidised/Company Gym
Company Parties/Events
Above 25 days holiday
Working from home
If you want to be able to work your way up the ranks or have the flexibility of being able to join different teams, then Cognito is very appealing.
The Culture
Me and the other interns were very close, spending the majority of our free time together.
Newbury is an expensive area and due to our relatively low wage, it was hard to try and save any money since more than half of it would be spent on accommodation and the rest of travel and food. There are a decent number of local pubs however and Newbury town has a Cinema, bowling and plenty of restaurants/pubs.
Newbury has a few clubs and pubs open until late, nothing too exciting, but everything you'd expect an average town to have.
Yes, people organised tennis, bike trips and there was a monthly night out.
Details
Placement (10 Months+)
Computer Systems Engineering, Computer Science
South West
May 2017