SQA Intern Review

It was a very good opportunity to be able to work for such an established company, and get an insight into how the working day is in one of these powerhouse companies. I was able to learn valuable lessons on etiquette within the office as well as how to speak to your colleagues and managers.

I felt as though I had been there from the very start. Everyone treated you as if you knew a lot, instead of babying you. I felt like I belonged and I was able to mesh well with the rest of the team. We were even invited to nights out with the team, certain events and team building exercises.

I was given everything that I needed to grow and be successful in my placement year. Due to the workload of the managers it is understandable that they could not give us complete guidance, but this in itself challenged us to grow and think for ourselves into what would enable us to prepare for final year.

There were some days where I would be flat out the entire day, chipping away at certain tasks and helping to develop bits and pieces for other people. I have even developed my own script, which the team now uses. However there have been days where I have had nothing much to do, except wait for a response from my colleagues in the USA to reply to my question, and so I would fill the time by looking at ways to improve my code.

I was the lead developer for an inventory website in our team. The website had to log in to each employees arrays and gather info about what was in them; SSDs, Hosts etc. That was my background project for the year, and I am still improving it to this day and will be for the next few months.

I feel as though my manager has tailored this experience to suit my needs and not his, a selfless act in my opinion. I have been able to learn Python in my time here and feel very confident in my abilities to communicate with people older and more experienced than me in a manner that is both professional and respectful.

Office was always quite lively, there was always someone having a chat and it was very informal, yet it seemed to run effortlessly thanks to great management. I thoroughly believe that if you want good, hard working employees, all you must do is treat them well, let them have some down time and they will work as hard as you need them to, as they will respect you. That's what our site lead did.

Everything that we needed was there for us. We had access to all areas which made us feel even more a part of the team. The first couple of weeks was all on boarding and information for us to read up on the company and we even had to give an NDA as some of the stuff was confidential.

There was definitely interest in my future and career, and my manager took time to tell me what I was doing right, what I could improve on, and the manner of which I carried myself. The team was very helpful in explaining things to me, and I can't thank them enough.

As much as this was a great internship and I could not have asked for better, I feel it has steered me in the direction that I want to go and unfortunately that direction is not towards HPE. After a year in the office, I do not think that a static environment is one which will show my full potential, and I would end up going crazy after a while.. I feel that I want to either do more with Sales and Marketing, like getting out and seeing the world, or work in a game development company, alongside other people with similar aspirations as myself.

Yes indeed there was, I have spoken to many of the other interns here and they are all very friendly, easy to get a long with and provide a good support structure. We frequently go and get lunch, and have even talked outside of work. I think that because we are all on the same boat that this strengthens the bond that has formed over the past year.

As I and the other interns lived at home, it was quite cheap for us to live. We only had to pay for the train/fuel and of course food. The food at lunch however, was also relatively cheap, and healthy. Nights out were cheap too, as it was in Belfast, so a night out here does not break the bank.

Nightlife was good, there are cheap places to go out all across Belfast. Limelight, Ollies, Laverys. Some are clubs and some are pubs but each have a wide variety and spread, and you will always find somewhere open. I did not go out much as I live far away from Belfast but I have been told that the nightlife is good.

Not that I am aware of. I did not really find that I particularly wanted to get involved in things outside of work though. I'm sure if I had looked around I probably could have found something. Victoria Square is right around the corner so shopping is always a possibility.